Proper Appreciation (and other stories)
by Raberba girl
Summary: Miscellaneous one-shots, including: Hookfang's perspective on Hiccup's final exam, Toothless's backstory, some HiccStrid, a Christmas fic involving Dagur and the Screaming Death, Valka's perspective of her reunion with Hiccup, etc.
1. Proper Appreciation

Proper Appreciation

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Hookfang's perspective on Hiccup's final exam.

A/N: I'm posting this separately from my previous HTTYD fics, because those are all headcanon, but this one here fits fine with actual canon. I'll probably post any other fully canon-based HTTYD one-shots I write here, too.

I have no idea how I got the idea for this fic, I just randomly wanted to write about Hiccup from Hookfang's POV. ^^; Hookfang was fun to write in _Strength_.

o.o.o

I wake up to the smell of gathering humans, more and more of them. They get louder and louder, their smell of excitement and bloodlust growing and growing 'til it fills my nose and I'm thrashing around and around and around the trap cave.

_Let me out._ Let me out, little monsters, so I can give you what you want and CRUSH YOU.

They suddenly get quiet and I freeze, quivering in anticipation. The humans are all above, but are there some down here, too? Even just a few for me to roast and tear apart? I can't waaaaiiiit, LET ME OUT!

I can't stand it and I start rushing again, around and around and _around_, burning so much that I almost feel a little sick. If they don't let me kill something soon, I'll _di_-

The cave bursts open right under me, and the sudden sunlight blinds me for a second. Then I start rushing again, joyful for just one _second_ when I feel free.

But the outline of this place forms under my claws, and it might be a bigger trap but it's still a trap. I can't get out. Are there any humans in here with me? I hope so. I'll tear them apart first and then I'll send my fire out past the chains and kill all the others. _"Die, monsters!"_

There _is_ a human in here with me. Just one, blech; but he's in here, close and defenseless. I didn't notice him at first, and even now it's hard to believe he's here, because HE IS TINY. Practically still a hatchling, barely any meat, he's like a _squirrel_. ...He's almost cute, I kind of want to play with him a little before I kill him.

But he's the only one I can reach easily, so too bad; no time to play. I think I can fit his whole scrawny body into my mouth, just one bite. I wish they'd given me something more _fun_!

"Hey, it's okay, it's okay..."

I'm hesitating. Because he's a _weird_ little human. For one thing, he smells a little like Lone Nightwing, which is so strange I can't even think about it. There's no anger in his scent at _all_, it's throwing me off, and he doesn't smell nearly as scared as he should. I don't like that, it's killing my excitement and bloodlust. Run around like a terrified little rat so I can kill you!

"I'm not one of them."

...Now he is even smaller. Because he threw away his metal claw and his shell and he's throwing away his horned skull, too. Now he's just a scrap of bones and skin and fur, so helpless I barely have the heart to kill him, and _I am __confused_.

I've never been this close to a human before who wasn't trying to kill me or escape. It's kind of...interesting. He's so close, _right_ in front of my nose, and so still and quiet, and so _not scared_, I'm inhaling lungfuls of him trying to read him, and...I kind of like it. He's like all other humans in that he doesn't smell good to eat, but he's saying emotions that I've never smelled from a human before.

_"determination, wonder, happiness, apprehension, worry, affection."_ I didn't even know humans _could_ feel those things. He seems almost like a pers-

CLANG

Sound stabs through my mind, _Danger! Fight!_ Meat in front of my nose, _snap_, humans humans humans _die_!

o.o.o.o.o

Fighting.

Pain.

Sleep...

o.o.o.o.o

I don't feel good when I wake up in the trap cave.

...My body is not hurt. But something in me doesn't feel good. ...Did I do something bad?

I lie and think for a while. It is very quiet outside.

There was a human. A little tiny adolescent squirrel of a human who smelled like a person. I...did...something...bad...to him. I think. I can't...remember very well.

He's just a human. Good riddance. It doesn't matter.

Except it _does_. Why does it matter?!

The first human _ever_ who didn't try to kill me or run away, who _talked_ to me a little, who wasn't a monster...and I killed him. I chased him down and made him nothing and now he's gone forever. Is his blood still on my-? No, no smell of gore on my claws, no taste of human in my mouth; I'd probably just swung a paw or tail or wing at him and cracked his frail little unprotected head with one blow-

The cave opens. What?

_What_?

That can't be right, I always sense them coming first, their monster smell mixed with anger and hate-

I almost didn't notice him _again_. He's so _small_, and slow, and still not scared. He's already by my nose before I finally figure out he's in here with me.

"Hey there, big guy..."

He is alive. Squirrel Meat is alive. So sweetly still and quiet, telling me _"pain hope desperation affection grief"_ and more, a tumble of emotions that makes me want to make him happy. He needs me. He's asking more politely than I ever thought was _possible_, even for dragons, and I like that he needs me. I don't know what he needs me for, but that doesn't matter because obviously I can do anything.

_"I'm special. I'm the best dragon, and I will help you, little weakling Squirrel Meat, because I can do it better than anyone else and you will think I'm amazing."_ Weaklings have a proper appreciation for amazingness.

"That's it...thaaaaat's it, come on out..."

I follow him into the sunlight.


	2. (Tooth part 1) Scaring Away Monsters

Brothers

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

**Part 1 - Scaring Away Monsters**

Summary: A Night Fury fledgling finds a six-year-old Viking boy lost in the woods. Pre-canon; Toothless's POV.

A/N: Until I find out how fast or slow dragons are supposed to age relative to humans, I'm just going to write as if they're always the exact same age. :/

Posting it here with _Proper Appreciation_ because it doesn't fit with any of the others.

o.o.o

Mama doesn't like these islands, She thinks they are bad and wrong, but I don't know why. I know She will fly away forever as soon as me and my clutchmates grow up. I don't know if I should go with Her or stay here.

Reckless and Stubborn love this place because there are so many interesting things to smell and see and do. They are mean and stupid and bigger than me, so I don't want to like it here the way they do.

...There are a lot of interesting things to smell and see and do. I haven't decided if I like it or hate it.

Mama was hungry, so She couldn't sleep and She went fishing. She said to stay away from the west forest because there are rotten monsters called 'humans' on the other side, and stay away from the northeast ocean because there's another rotten monster over there too, who is always trying to call Her away from us. Me and Reckless and Stubborn never hear anything, so I don't know why She says that.

Now that Mama's gone, Reckless wants to go explore the bad forest, and Stubborn wants to go explore the bad ocean. I want to go to the forest, but I don't want to agree with stupid Reckless, so I don't say anything.

Reckless pounced on Stubborn and pinned him, and now he's chewing on one of his head flaps. He's using the little white teeth that started growing in his mouth, and Stubborn is whimpering, so I know it hurts, hah. I like when they're mean to each other because then they're not being mean to me.

_"Are you scared of the human monsters, huh, are you a tiny weak little helpless newborn?"_

_"I'm not scared! I'm not No Teeth, _he's_ the scared little newborn, not me!"_

_"I'm not scared and I'm not a newborn and I _do_ have teeth,"_ I say, but quiet so they won't notice me. I hate their name for me... I DO have teeth, I can feel them sleeping deep inside my mouth, I just can't make them come out yet the way Reckless and Stubborn can. I don't like Mama's name for me either, but I'd still rather She call me 'Runt' than they call me 'No Teeth.'

Stubborn hit Reckless with his tail and surprised him and got loose, and now they're rolling on the dirt again. This time Stubborn wins. His claws are caught in Reckless's wing. His claws aren't as sharp as Mama's, but I know they still hurt. _"_You're_ the weak little newborn! You're scared to fly over the ocean because you think you'll get tired and fall in!"_

They fight some more and Reckless finally wins for good, so we have to go to the forest. I'm excited so I forget and start running ahead, then Reckless cuffs me and makes me stay behind Stubborn. _"_I'm_ troop leader, _I_ lead. You're the useless runt, so you stay in your place."_

_"I'm not useless!"_ I say, and they both cuff me for arguing. I hate it. I _know_ I'm good and I can do good things, but they never believe me. Someday when I find a real flock to join, I'm gonna have a queen who knows everything I can do and loves me and listens to me.

We follow Reckless through the forest, creeping low to the ground so other animals won't see us, and flying up into the trees to look at the leaves and nests, and running when we provoke bigger animals who try to chase us. We have wings and they don't, so they don't catch us, and it's fun.

It's been a long time, I know Mama must have come back to the cave and found us gone, but Reckless won't go back until we see a human monster. I'm tired now, so this isn't fun anymore; I'm hungry and I want to go back to Mama so She'll feed me.

_"Look!"_

We hide, like predators and not prey. There are strange sounds and strange smells, and finally we see a troop of the _strangest_ animals I ever knew.

They're LOUD. They crash through the trees as if they're calling for big animals to come eat them. They're fat and lots of colors and don't have any scales or fur on their faces and front paws. The rest of them is covered with very strange skins that are dead and don't smell much like skin, and dead fur and metal shells. They walk on only their hind legs, but they have no tails or wings at all; how do they balance?!

"Wait...wait, I already saw this rock - I _knew_ it, we're going in circles!"

"Ugh. Get out of the way, Snotlout, I'M leading from now on."

"Come on, Astrid, you have no idea how to get home!"

"I know better than _you_ do."

"Hey, cool, a forest gremlin! Maybe it'll lead us home if we give it a treat."

"That's your shadow, Tuffnut."

"Hey, where's Hiccup?"

"Who cares about that loser?"

"He probably fell behind again. Should we go back and look for him?"

"It's a _survival_ mission. We're supposed to _survive_ for four hours in the woods, so if he can't make it, he fails."

"But he's the chief's son...we can't just leave him to die out here."

"Yeah, we can. Then _I'll_ be the new heir because I'm next in line to be chief."

"Ew, Snotlout or Hiccup. I'd rather be an Outcast."

"How could you say that, Astrid...?!"

"Guys, the sun's setting! It's been more than four hours, and Hiccup's missing. We should send up a distress signal."

"And fail the mission?! No way!"

There are three males and two females. I think they are very young, like me and my clutchmates. There is another male somewhere, but he is far away and hard to smell. There are no adults. Only two of these weird animals are littermates, but I wonder if they're all still breaking the rules and wandering alone when they're not supposed to, too.

_"Let's hunt them,"_ Reckless says.

I'm surprised. I don't like what Reckless is saying. _"We're too young to hunt for real."_

_"You're just scared to do it,"_ Stubborn says. _"Come on, it'll be easy and fun."_

_"The first one to draw blood wins."_

I don't like it, I don't like it, I'm _not_ scared I just think it's a stupid, bad game. But I have to play or else they'll call me a scared little newborn, so I follow them as we stalk.

"I'm gonna send up a signal."

"_Don't_, Fishlegs, you pathetic-!"

The strange cubs scream when we pounce. I thought that three of them were going to be dead immediately, but the female that Reckless was aiming for rakes a paw across his nose before he can reach her, and he screams and shakes his head so that drops of blood fly through the air, and me and Stubborn are surprised and falter.

"Whoa, look, giant winged cats!"

"Those aren't cats, stupid, they're _dragons_!"

"What the heck kind of dragons are those?!"

"WHO CARES! FIGHT!"

Suddenly the cubs are waving their biggest shells and also strange metal claws. I don't understand. I thought they were helpless, but we're going to have to _fight_ them.

_"I'm scared!"_

_"It hurts! Mama, help! Help!"_

...Reckless and Stubborn are running away. What?! _What_?! They got scared and ran and they're not gonna fight the-?!

"YAAAHH!"

They're attacking me! I'm the only one still here, so all five of the weird crazy cubs are attacking me and hurting me! _"NO! Go away!"_ I dash away from the very scary loud female and the two big males, and I swipe at one of the others instead.

"Hey! I'M the only one allowed to hurt my brother, you dumb flying cat!" My claws bounced off the shell on the cub's head and now his littermate is hitting me, I'm scared and it hurts and my stupid clutchmates ran away like scared weakling newborns, so I'm going to run, too! I hate them!

I have to slow down. I've been running and running and running but I'm not in danger now, so I have to stop. I have to _stop_ and go home before I get lost. I make myself walk on the ground instead of running and flying.

"Who's there?!"

I snarl and hiss and flare my wings. I thought I escaped from the scary cubs, I thought-?!

I am up in a tree. A cub comes trampling close, but he is not one of the crazy fighting ones- Ohh, he is the other one, the far away male. I escaped the other cubs but I found this one instead.

"Snotlout?! Astrid...?"

He is frightened. He is alone. He is frightened and alone just like me, except I'm bigger and stronger and faster than him. He doesn't even know I'm here. I could pounce down and catch him and kill him. Ohh... If he is alone, I can win. Stupid Reckless and Stubborn were the scared ones, but if I catch this alone weak cub and tear him, I'll _win_.

"I knew things would go wrong, I _knew_ it..." He sits down right under this tree. "Oww...stupid rocks..."

There is a wound on his foreleg, and he's looking at it. He is upset and very tired, and he's hungry. And frightened, and angry. So many feelings. He is very not happy, just like me.

He takes something out of his bundle and starts to eat it. It's _food_. He eats it, and then he sighs. "Aaaand no more food and water...ugh, I wanna go _home_."

I should pounce down and kill him now, but I don't feel like it. Not yet. I'll kill him and then I'll go home, but not yet.

After a long time, I am surprised because I realize the cub is asleep. He was very still and quiet, and that's because he fell asleep?! He was very tired. I didn't have to hide in this tree for so long.

I climb down and smell the cub and look at him. He's very soft and small and scrawny, almost no meat on his bones. He's like a squirrel except he's too big and slow to be a squirrel. His paws smell like charcoal and metal.

He is cold. I have seen furred animals shiver like this before, and Mama says it's because they get too cold sometimes. They make heat in their bodies like we do, but sometimes not enough. Sometimes if they get too cold, they die.

...I want this cub to be dead, right? But I don't feel like making him dead, it's easier to just lie down here and rest. I'm not scared anymore at all, and Charcoal Paws smells good. I'll smell him for a while until I get bored.

After a while he stops shivering, and as he sleeps he makes a small noise and shifts, and his soft skin touches my hide. I look at his hurt foreleg and think of something. I lick the dried blood away, very careful and gentle so he won't wake up. His skin tastes good, not good to eat but easy to lick. Fresh blood comes out of his wound, just a little bit before my saliva starts healing it. I rub the blood on my cheeks so it will dry there and be easy to smell.

I won even though my stupid clutchmates didn't see, and now I'll _prove_ I won, and I won't even have to kill the soft little cub who smells and tastes good and is curling close into my side as he sleeps as if he thinks I'm his clutchmate. Silly cub, you're not even a dragon...but I think you would be a nicer and not-stupid clutchmate than my real ones...

o.o.o

"Hiccup!"

I was asleep?! But now I'm very very awake and frightened, and it's night and there are strange big animals approaching, animals who smell like this cub here and like the crazy fighting cubs but _scarier_. They are adults. The parents will see me too close to their cub and will kill me to protect him. I have to fly run flee _now_.

"Ow!"

I tripped over the cub but I flap my wings and don't fall, I have to fleeeee...!

"Hiccup!"

"...Dad? Dad! I'm over here!"

Flying running fleeing, Mama will be home by now, She'll know I disobeyed, She'll cuff me and tell me I was stupid to wander away but I'm _not_ stupid, it's Reckless and Stubborn's fault, I don't like it...!

I am very tired when I reach the cave. Mama and my clutchmates are all surprised I'm still alive, and I'm so hungry but I almost don't get to eat because Mama says She doesn't think She should waste food on a stupid runt who will probably get killed soon anyway.

_"I didn't get killed! Look, I got first blood!"_

_"Humans! HUMANS! You attacked monster humans, I am so very much surprised they didn't kill you!"_

I am shocked. Humans? _Humans_?! _Those_ were the monsters I escaped from?! ...That cub who smelled and tasted good, and slept with me like a nice and not-stupid clutchmate was...was a monster...?

I am sad. And angry. _"I fought monsters and survived, so that means I'M STRONG and You should feed me!"_ She does feed me, and I feel better, but She's still disgusted with me and She won't come near me all night, She doesn't even lick me to lull me to sleep when the sky starts to brighten.

But Reckless and Stubborn are not as stupid as usual. When Mama can't hear, they come close and ask eagerly, _"You really did it?!"_

_"You really killed a human monster?!"_

_"Duh. Can't you smell?"_ I say. It's not true because I didn't kill anything, but I say it anyway, because I want them to think that and be impressed.

They sniff at the blood on my face and think I'm amazing. _"No Teeth killed a monster and is still alive!"_

_"I am strong and smart,"_ I say. I feel very good.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

_Fifteen years later_

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Hiccup is FINALLY learning how to talk for real, I'm so happy~

I wish now I hadn't thought that humans are so stupid, because I think now that they _can't_ talk even if they want to. They can't make the right sounds with their throats and mouths, all they can do is chitter. I didn't know that before.

But Mom uses her wood-and-stone weapon to help her talk to us for real, and now Hiccup made a new one of His strange human metal things to make sound-words for Him, just like He made a strange metal human thing to be His hind leg for Him when He lost his real one. And like how He made wings for Himself even though He didn't have any before. Humans are smart, not stupid, and I am very proud of my human for learning how to walk and fly and talk even though He _couldn't_. My Hiccup is amazing.

_"Is in nose. Achoo! Like that."_

Finally I figure out what He means. _"Mucus! It's called 'mucus.'"_

_"Mucus. 'Lout' is big mean person."_

_"...So his name is Mean Mucus?"_

_"Yes."_

_"What a stupid name."_

_"_(Heh...can't argue with you there...) _Scare monsters, they run away."_

_"A stupid name won't scare a monster."_

_"I know, but is what parents' parents' parents' a lot think."_

_"Why do you all have to do what your family-who-came-before say if it's stupid?"_

_"...Because we're human."_ He is smiling because He knows how stupid it is and that dragons win.

_"Yes, that's why."_ I nuzzle Him to show that I don't care about how stupid it is, I still love Him anyway.

He nuzzles me back. "Love you too, Toothless."

_"What does my name mean?"_ I am excited. For a long time He calls me this sound that is a name, and now that He can talk, I _finally_ get to find out what it means!

_"'Toothless'? Means No Teeth."_

...

...

_"Half Of Me, are you okay?"_ He asks.

No. No I am not okay.

I turn my back on Hiccup and curl up in a corner and cover myself with my wings and _sulk_.

"Toothless?!" Hiccup comes and climbs over me and squeezes Himself between me and the wall so I have to look at Him again.

_"Go away!"_

"Toothless! Hey, what happened?!"

Since He won't go away, I go away instead; I move to the other side of the fire and lie down again.

Annoying Hiccup comes and crawls up between my front paws and bares His throat to me. _"Sorry sorry sorry!"_ He rubs His face against mine. _"I love you."_

I want to be mad at Him, but I can't stay mad at my precious Half Of Me, so now I'm just sad instead. I lick Him and nuzzle Him back. _"I love You too."_

_"Half Of Me hates name 'Toothless'?"_

_"..."_

_"...No Teeth name throw away. Only call 'Bud' instead. Good name, means 'friend.' Yes?"_

...His special name for me is a good name, but Toothless? _Toothless_? Why! _"...Why do You call me 'No Teeth'?"_

He is sheepish. _"First meet. Give fish, scary dragon has no teeth. Oh no! Dragon has teeth, very scary!"_

_"You are scared of me?!"_

_"Not now! Back then. First meet."_

I think I remember. _Before_ Hiccup was my other half, when He was still just a strange tiny human with a blade and a fish who maybe would try to hurt me but didn't. I lick Him again to reassure myself that He's mine now and He loves me.

_"Is joke. Funny. Scary dragon no teeth, dragon I love so very much has teeth, name is No Teeth."_

_"...It's not funny."_

_"Sorry! Is funny for humans. But Half Of Me hates name, throw name away. Sorry. I love you."_

I love Him, too. He didn't mean to hurt me at all. I think this name for me is affectionate instead. I'm still not happy, but it doesn't hurt anymore. _"My human name is No Teeth, my special name You call me is Friend. It's...good. Yes. I love You."_

He pats my head to comfort me. _"No Teeth name better than my name. My name very stupid."_

Now I am very curious. _"What does Your human name mean, Half Of Me?"_

_"...Don't know dragon word."_ He starts making a strange noise and tries to explain, and finally I understand.

_"HICCUP?! Your human name is HICCUP?!"_

_"Scares monsters,"_ He pouts.

_"Ha ha ha ha ha!"_ So very funny. I love this stupid name, I love my wonderful Half Of Me. I am No Teeth and He is Hiccup, and together we are amazing and scare away all monsters.

_"Half Of Me hates my name,"_ Hiccup says, pretending to pout.

I nuzzle Him until He stops pretending and smiles and caresses me. _"Perfect,"_ I tell Him. _"It's perfect."_

o.o.o

Author's Notes: The people who read all my fanfiction are probably tired of hearing this, but for the people who only read _Proper Appreciation_, I firmly ship Hiccup/Toothless platonic.

This was intended as a one-shot, and it can still be considered a one-shot, but after I wrote it and was playing with other plot bunnies, the one where Toothless ends up in the Red Death's flock was kind of acting like a continuation of this fic. *sweatdrop* And then there might even be a third installment that goes into HTTYD1, I dunno.

In any case, _Scaring Away Monsters_ can be seen as either a standalone one-shot or as part 1 of a miniseries.

Tooth's mother in this story is just a typical dragon mother, she's not being mean or anything. She calls Tooth a runt because he is a runt, and her highest priority is keeping her offspring alive until they are old enough to take care of themselves, at which point her first priority will become her own survival until she has the opportunity to mate again and make more offspring to continue her species. The dragons I write are very animalistic in that they don't have automatic affection for or loyalty to their biological family members the way humans do, though I do want to experiment at least once or twice with dragons who have more human-like relationships.

**All this time, Toothless has been referring to Hiccup as the sound "Hiccup" (which is also why he refers to Valka by the same sound-name, "Mom," that Hiccup uses for her), but he never actually knew what it meant until now. XD**

Heh, this also happened to me with _No Need to Hide_... The little epilogue was not planned at all, but I realized that I needed to somehow resolve the fact that Hiccup's name for Toothless is also the same hated baby-name Toothless was given by his mean brothers. XD XD I like how it turned out.


	3. Expressing Affection

Expressing Affection

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Something about this relationship needs to change...

o.o.o

It was all so normal that Astrid didn't think about it. Just enjoyed the kiss as usual, grinned at her boyfriend afterward without noticing the agitation behind his answering smile, and started to head back out of the forge.

Hiccup watched her go, still absently nursing the newest bruise forming on his arm. He _meant_ to let her just keep walking as usual.

But then he squeezed his eyes shut. And when they popped open again, he was stumbling after her, calling urgently, "Astrid, wait! We need to, um, talk..."

Her smile as she turned back to him was so bright and loving that he swallowed his words again. "N...Never mind."

Yet she did notice this time, and her smile turned to a frown. She returned to him, laying her palms on his shoulders in concern. "What's wrong, babe?"

"Nothing, just forget it..."

She frowned and punched his arm again. "Hey, _talk_ to me."

His wince seemed more exaggerated than usual, and when he bowed over in response to the blow, he took a long time to straighten back up. When she could finally see his face again, he looked resigned and a bit hopeless. "Astrid...is there any chance you could maybe please stop doing that?"

"Stop what, _kissing_ you?" she said in astonishment.

"No! No no no, I like the kissing, the kissing part's great." He cleared his throat nervously. "I just...um...well..." He took a deep breath, then plunged ahead in a despairing sort of way. "Okay, _maybe_ you haven't, like, noticed this, Astrid; but, crazy as it sounds, I'm...kind of a weakling. And you're, um, not a weakling, you're actually really, really strong, and, so, well, it kind of hurts. When you hit me. I mean, not 'kind of' hurts; it _really_ hurts, because you're _really_ strong, and I'm...this." He gestured vaguely at himself. He had long since stopped making eye contact.

"H...Hiccup-?"

"I know I said I'd get used to it! And I really, actually thought I would, because, I mean, _getting kissed by Astrid Hofferson_, totally worth it, seriously, it's worth it! I mean...I love you." His head was hanging as he said it. "I really do. So I...know it's worth it. It just...I kind of...it still hurts, and...I'm starting to kind of...notquiteasmuch look forward to, um. Getting kissed. Even by the most amazing and beautiful girl on Berk. On the planet. Who's you, by the way. ...Please don't hit me." He was cringing quite a lot by this time, clearly expecting to get hit.

Astrid felt like she was the one who'd just been punched instead. "...Why didn't you _tell_ me sooner?!"

He dared to peek up at her through his ridiculously long bangs. "Because I was afraid you'd get mad and wouldn't want to kiss me anymore...?"

"You're an _idiot_!"

"I know." His head was hanging again.

She _hated_ seeing him like that, especially for such a stupid reason, and she started to punch him to tell him so.

Horrified, she realized what she was doing, and tried to catch herself. She only partially succeeded; her fist glanced off his sleeve and he let out a yelp, though she hoped it was more from surprise than pain. She'd managed to divert _some_ of the force, at least. "I'm sorry! Hiccup I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-!" Impulsively, she kissed his arm where she'd hit him. The look on his face was so adorable and delicious that she seized his shirt and dragged him close to kiss him properly, her tongue slipping past his lips perhaps a bit more gently than usual.

He looked a little dazed afterward. Somehow they'd ended up on the workbench together, several feet away from the bellows where they'd originally been standing.

"It's, it's just a _habit_ with me, if you didn't like it you should have said something! I didn't fall in love with you because you'd be my personal punching bag, I fell in love with you because you're amazing, and I didn't _know_ I was hurting you!"

"My staggering and rubbing at bruises wasn't enough of a clue, huh...?"

"Oh, so I'm supposed to read your-" She stared, wide-eyed, at her fist, which was once again pressed against his shoulder. She was alarmed at how _automatic_ it apparently was, how easily and how often she hit him. His resigned, gentle little smile as he cupped his hand around her fist and kissed it nearly broke her heart. "Hiccup, I'm _sorry_, I really am, I-!"

"Don't worry about it, babe," he murmured soothingly. "I'll stick it out. Like I said, you're worth it."

She kissed him to make up for it, then dosed him with another kiss for free, then half-knelt there on the bench for a while, hugging his head against her chest. "Worth it," he mumbled into her left breast.

She let him go so that she could push up his sleeve. He blushed and looked away as she stared at his bare skin, which was, sure enough, marked by more than one layer of bruises. "_I_ did this to you...?!"

"Some of 'em are from Dad," he mumbled, "or Snotlout, or, just, other random Vikings being friendly... And this one's from Toothless, so don't feel bad; sometimes he forgets what a weakling I am, too..."

Astrid stared at him, letting his sleeve slip back down again. Amazed, she wondered what it was like, having to experience this rough world in such a fragile body. "How do you even-?! Has it _always_ been like this for you?!"

"Not really." His wry little smile fooled her for a moment. "I didn't get touched much before I became popular."

Which broke her heart all over again. "I _swear_, Hiccup, I had no idea. I'm so sorry, I won't hit you anymore, and I'll try to be gentle-"

Hiccup's response was drowned out by a scoffing laugh as Snotlout came strolling into the forge. "Awww, what, the hiccup's whining about a little pain? A _real_ man can take a hit from a girl. Come on, Astrid, you know you can always ditch this guy and have some of _this_ instead, right?" He kissed his own biceps with gusto, prompting a show of gagging from Astrid.

Hiccup glared in annoyance. "Luckily for me, Astrid would apparently rather have _me_ than a real man, so find someone else to glaze your muscles, Snotlout."

"_You're_ the realest man on this island, gorgeous," Astrid murmured into Hiccup's ear, kissing his jaw and sliding her hand up under his shirt, the fingers of her other hand playing across her boyfriend's (admittedly narrow) shoulders.

"Astrid-!" Hiccup squeaked, darting glances at Snotlout.

"Ew," his cousin remarked. Snotlout sighed dramatically and slammed a sword down on the closest countertop. "Fine, whatever. When you're done being disgusting, my dad needs this sharpened. And by the way, the twins are spying on you two." He marched out again, leaving Astrid rolling her eyes, and a dismayed Hiccup looking around at the chinks in the walls.

It took Astrid a month to break herself of the habit of expressing her affection with violence, but Hiccup bore it patiently. Then he had to get both her and Toothless to stop hauling up his shirt for bruise-checks (at least, in public).

By the time he'd matured into a body that was sturdy enough to have handled at least her milder blows, Astrid had long since stopped administering anything of the sort, and they were still all the happier for it.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: (I have no idea how to write romance. *facepalm*)

This whole week, I've been busy working on my room and also planning out a long HSRMO Squirt fic (which I might not have time to actually write *sweatdrop*). I'd gone a bit too long without actually drafting anything, so I scribbled down this drabble to scratch the writing itch. The idea came from me hoping that they'll address the domestic violence issue in season 3, especially since Astrid never hit Hiccup in HTTYD2.

**Ftr, "realest" is extremely poor grammar. XD**

I have no idea whether Snotlout is still Hiccup's cousin in the DreamWorks version, but in the books, they are first cousins. (Snotlout is also waaaaaaay more horrible in the books than he is in the DreamWorks version. *sweatdrop*)

By the way... It's been a _long_ time since I've been willing to take recommendations, because I simply haven't had time for them the past several years. But, despite still not having time, I've found myself actively reading HTTYD fanfiction anyway (which feels weird because I never even read much Kingdom Hearts fanfiction that wasn't written by my own friends XD). I've been avoiding FFN, because so much of it is either Mary Sue stuff and/or just way too badly written. AO3 is much better, but I'm still getting tired of having to skip over a bunch of RotBTD yaoi, and of the majority of everything else being either non-yaoi RotBTD stuff (although I like the basic crossover concept, I'm not really interested in reading those particular fandoms), or HiccStrid fics that almost inevitably include fornication and often actual smut, which I find gross and boring.

Does anyone have any decently-written platonic Hiccup/Toothless fics (on any Web site) they could recommend to me? Or even well-written HiccStrid that's not gross and sex-obsessed (or at least where the smut is _marital_)? Or, heck, any kind of well-written HTTYD gen fics at all? Or interesting HTTYD crossovers that _aren't_ RotBTD (particularly Kingdom Hearts)?


	4. When Loved Ones Are Near

When Loved Ones Are Near  
(rough draft)  
A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

_For Christmas 2014_

Summary: Dagur and his Berserkers happen to attack during the one time of the year when Berk has no dragons.

A/N: This takes place soon after season 2 of the TV show, but some of my timeline details might be off; sorry...!

I think it would actually make sense if Alvin had killed Dagur offscreen in the last episode of _Defenders of Berk_, but I kind of like the idea of Dagur managing to escape so that Hiccup can eventually turn him into an ally. ^^;

o.o.o

"Well, Chief," Gobber said cheerfully, "the good news is that no one got hurt!" They were perched on a hilltop that gave them a rather good view of the wrecked remains of Berk's fleet smoldering in the harbor.

"What do you call _this_?" Hiccup said indignantly, pointing at his father's burned leg.

"It's all right, son," Stoick said. He kept making faces and pushing Toothless away, but the Night Fury insistently continued to sniff at his wound and attempt to lick it. "If this is the only casualty from a battle between two Scauldrons and a wild Typhoomerang, that's good enough for me. Get _away_, dragon."

"He's trying to help, Dad."

"If he wants to help, he can keep his tongue to himself and carry me down to the Great Hall."

"The Great Hall?" Gobber said. "Where you can keep barking out orders and meddling in everyone's business? I'd say you're better off with the healers and some bed rest."

"We've already sent for Gothi, and I'm not going to _rest_ when there's work to do!"

"Night Fury saliva has healing properties," Hiccup told his father. "If you'd just-"

Gobber caught Stoick's arms. The Hooligan chief let out an outraged exclamation, then yelled when Toothless seized his chance to wash the injury. "What is this, mutiny?! Get off me, Gobber! Hiccup, get your blasted dragon away from me before I kick him off this hill!"

"Dad, you got burned by dragonfire. It'll heal better and faster if you let a dragon treat it."

Stoick, whose arms were still slippery from the baby Scauldron he'd been protecting, wrenched free and shoved the Night Fury away again. Toothless, who had just about finished anyway, coughed out a small fireball to cleanse his mouth and rumbled in satisfaction. "Good job, bud," Hiccup told him, too quietly for Stoick to hear. He scratched the base of one of the dragon's head plates. Toothless purred, leaning heavily into his touch.

Stormfly, bearing Astrid and Gothi, swooped up to join them. Hiccup hurried to help Astrid assist the old woman to the ground, but Astrid had already set Gothi on her feet before he could reach them. "Sorry for the delay, Chief," Astrid apologized. "It took me a little while to find her."

The village elder shuffled over to the chieftain, studied his leg for a moment, then started scratching symbols in the dirt.

"She says that the dragon already took care of it," Gobber translated, "and that you ought to be on bed rest for a few days, Stoick."

Stoick protested indignantly.

"Man," Astrid remarked as she looked out at the ruined fleet, "I guess it could have been worse, but still..."

"Looks like you guys are going to have to fly to the Meathead tribe after all, huh," Hiccup chuckled. "But then you're kinda gonna be stranded there 'til the dragons can come back to get you..."

"What do you mean, 'you guys'?" Stoick said. "You're still going, Hiccup."

"Dad, _someone_ has to stay behind to look after Berk, and with your leg like that, you're really gonna need my help!"

"I need you to represent Berk to our allies more than ever, son!"

"Gobber and Spitelout can handle it between the two of them," Hiccup argued. "Can't you, Gobber? He can do all the bragging, and you can keep everyone out of trouble."

Gobber chuckled and clapped the spindly young man into a friendly hug. "I know you're just trying to get out of going, but you do have a point."

"See, Dad?"

After the altered holiday plans had finally been argued out and Stoick had been moved to the Great Hall (he'd won that concession after losing the rest), Hiccup started ambling to the forge, but Astrid pulled him aside. "Hey, Hiccup," she seriously, "can we talk?" The dragons, oblivious, started to wrestle playfully nearby.

Hiccup swallowed nervously. "S...Sure."

"So...Snoggletog is coming up soon."

"Uh huh."

"We're not gonna have the dragons for a while..."

"Yeah." He searched her face apprehensively, trying to figure out what she was getting at.

"Except...well...Toothless."

Hiccup blinked, not sure what to make of this.

"Hiccup?" Now she was the one who sounded apprehensive, which surprised him. "Do you think...is there any possible chance...you could maybe lend me Toothless for a few days?"

"Lend you Toothless?"

He was absolutely not used to seeing Astrid like this, fidgety and uncertain, her eyes downcast. "It's my fault, it's definitely my fault...I just couldn't figure out what to, um, for the longest time, I, well, it took me so long to decide, and now I know but it's too late to make a trip by sea and now all our ships are gone anyway, and Stormfly's about to have her babies, so I can't take her...I just...I just need Toothless for a little while. And...you can't come." She finally met his eyes and asked diffidently, "Are you okay with that, Hiccup?"

"I- I mean, um, yeah, sure! I...I don't know, um, I guess- Sure, Astrid. I mean, I trust you guys...um... Hey, Toothless!"

The Night Fury immediately dropped the branch he was carrying and romped over to his human, slopping a greeting across Hiccup's face.

"EW, Toothless, no licking!" Hiccup pointed sternly. "Hey."

Toothless went still, wide-eyed and alert.

"Toothless, Astrid wants you to take her somewhere for a few days."

Toothless sniffed at Hiccup's chest.

"Hey, pay attention. You two are gonna go out for a while without me, okay? You're gonna be okay with that, right, bud?"

Toothless warbled at him.

"Okay." Hiccup patted his dragon, and Toothless nosed him lovingly. "It'll be okay."

"It's just for a few days, Toothless," Astrid said, smiling a little and patting him. Stormfly inserted her head between them, and Astrid laughed as she started scratching the Nadder's chin. "You don't like being left out, do you, girl."

"We'll be waiting for you guys to come back safely," Hiccup said, and Astrid touched a little kiss to his cheek.

"So," Astrid said, back to her usual confident self, "now is when you start giving me how-to-fly-Toothless lessons, right?"

"Yeah. Come on, I know a good place to start."

The next two days were busy. Between teaching Astrid and Toothless how to fly together, working on his Snoggletog gift to Astrid, designing a special chair for Stoick against the man's wishes, helping with preparations for the imminent departure of the flock and most of the villagers, and dealing with Berk's usual liveliness, Hiccup never seemed to have a spare moment.

"Dad, you're not going to be sitting around doing nothing. You're going to be sitting _so that_ you'll be able to actually _do_ your usual chiefing."

"My usual chiefing involves the use of my own two feet! Now stop wasting time with this crazy idea of yours and go do something useful!"

"Yeah, because that attitude about my contributions has worked _so well_ for us in the past..."

There was a sound of an explosion, and distant shouting from startled, angry Vikings. "That was SO not my fault!" Snotlout could be heard yelling from that general direction.

The Thorston twins, flying overhead on their Zippleback, cheered and whooped. "YEAH, ha ha ha, _awesome_!"

"Nice going, Snotlout!"

Stoick gave his son a pointed look as Hiccup facepalmed. "Dealing with _that_ would be useful," Stoick said. "Give up this chair idea, son."

"Come on, Toothless," Hiccup sighed.

That night, after making more progress on Astrid's axe, Hiccup resumed work on the wheeled chair anyway. When he presented the finished contraption to the chief the next morning, he ignored Stoick's inevitable fussing, squirmed under his father's arm, and gestured for Toothless to do the same on the other side.

"Don't think you can push me around just because you've got a Night Fury to help you! My leg doesn't even hurt, I can get around just fine on my own-"

"You're still _hobbling_, Dad," Hiccup grumbled. "_Mildew_ could beat you in a footrace right now."

Stoick sputtered indignantly.

"Just _try_ the chair, okay?" Hiccup snapped. He braced it with his prosthetic and kept Stoick steady as Toothless heaved him into the chair.

"How dare you-!"

"Toothless," Hiccup said, gesturing. The dragon obligingly planted a heavy paw on Stoick's thigh, halting his struggles to stand up again.

"Ow! Get this dragon off me!"

"Try the chair, Dad. _Please_, just try it."

It took a few attempts, a lot of condescending complaints, and some threatening from Toothless. Just before Hiccup's patience frayed to the breaking point, Stoick finally started rolling around in earnest, and surprised them both with how quickly his powerful arms were able to propel him around the house.

"Huh...maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all," Stoick mused, frowning, still trying to reconcile how silly he looked sitting in a moving chair to the fact that he could now get around much more efficiently than his painful staggering of the previous days. Toothless sniffed curiously at the contraption.

"If it still doesn't work for you after you've tried it for a few hours, feel free to feed it to Meatlug or toss it in the ocean," Hiccup said. "In the meantime, I'm gonna go check on the fishermen."

"You do that, son," Stoick said thoughtfully, experimenting with a spin.

Later that morning, Hiccup had to say the first and by far the most painful of the good-byes. It was bad enough with Astrid - he hugged her for a long time, trying to memorize her warmth and fully relish the long kiss she gave him. _'She's _Astrid_. She'll be fine. She can take care of herself, and she'll have Toothless with her. I'll see her again soon...'_

Toothless was even worse. He seemed cheerful enough, though slightly confused, when Hiccup hugged him and told him good-bye. It was when Astrid climbed on his back and tried to urge him away, and Hiccup simply stood there and watched, that Toothless started to get an inkling of what the humans expected. He warbled anxiously and pushed his face into Hiccup.

"Heeey, bud, hey, it's only for a few days," Hiccup crooned, caressing him. "Go and look after Astrid for me for a while, please?"

Toothless made an incredulous little croaking sound. When Hiccup backed away and made shooing motions, the Night Fury's entire body drooped. Whining pitifully, he trudged close again and licked Hiccup and gazed at him so sorrowfully that it broke Hiccup's heart.

"Toothleeeessss, don't look at me like that! I promise I'll be _right here_ waiting for you, okay?" Hiccup pushed him away as hard as he could (the dragon barely budged) and stepped away again, folding his arms tightly.

"It's okay, Toothless," Astrid murmured, patting his neck. Toothless grumbled a little. "We're just gonna run a little errand, then we'll come right back to Hiccup, okay?"

Toothless vocalized in resigned displeasure and turned away. He spread his wings, paused one last time to look over his shoulder and bark at Hiccup, then leaped into the air. Hiccup watched his loved ones until they were just a speck in the sky, and then he couldn't see them anymore at all. He turned away, already feeling heavy-hearted and lonely.

The farewells a few hours later were much easier. Hiccup smiled as he petted and scratched various dragons who milled around him and squawked at him and nudged him affectionately. When the dragons finally rose into the air, bearing the Hooligans who were joining the Meathead tribe for Snoggletog, Hiccup waved good-bye to Gobber and chuckled when Ruffnut yelled, "Enjoy Boringtog without us, suckers!"

"Oh yeah?" Tuffnut shouted up at his sister. "Well, say hi to the _Loserheads_ for us!"

"Don't miss me too much, fartbrain!"

"As if I'd ever miss an annoying piece of fungus like you!" Both twins were nearly in tears by the time Ruffnut had flown out of earshot.

In the meantime, there was an angry shout from Spitelout, some yelling from Snotlout, and then Hookfang came to a landing in front of Hiccup and Stoick, proudly carrying his human in his mouth like a dog playing fetch.

"And where were you off to, Snotlout?" Stoick said pleasantly. He somehow struck a balance between menace simmering under his tone and amusement twinkling in his eyes.

"Hookfang, you traitor!" Snotlout yelled. "Come _on_, Chief, you can't keep me here for Snoggletog!"

"After the stunt you pulled the other day, I think it's quite a fitting punishment."

"Good job, Hookfang," Hiccup praised, patting the Monstrous Nightmare's cheek. Hookfang dropped Snotlout and rubbed his chin against Hiccup affectionately.

"BAD job, Hookfang!" Snotlout shouted. "You're supposed to take me to the Meatheads! _Babes_, Hookfang! Fresh meat! You want your master to get a girlfriend and be happy, right?!"

"Who's a good Nightmare?" Hiccup cooed, basking in the feel of dragon hide under his hands - it slightly eased the ache of losing his own dragon partner. "_Who's_ a good Nightmare? You are, yes, _you_ are~"

"Stop getting your sissy cooties on him," Snotlout snarled, grabbing one of his dragon's fangs and yanking his head away from Hiccup. Hookfang promptly 'ate' him. "Hookfang!" Snotlout raged from inside the dragon's mouth, his voice muffled.

Hiccup shook his head and wandered over to Tuffnut, who was muttering angrily under his breath as he trudged away. "You know...I know how you feel, Tuffnut."

"No, you don't," the other teen snapped. "We've been together so long she's like, half of me, and now she's _gone_, and I don't know what to do when she's not here..."

"She's only been gone for a few seconds, but you still miss her," Hiccup said softly. "There's this hole in your heart that really does feel like it hurts."

Tuffnut blinked. "...Huh. Guess you do know how it feels. Hey, you wanna come yak tipping with me?"

"Tuff, the whole point of separating you guys was so that you'd _stay out_ of trouble."

"Or we could blow something up before the dragons fly off to Babyland," Tuffnut mused, clearly not listening. "I don't even remember how we set all those fires before we got Barf and Belch!"

Hiccup raised his hands and gave up.

Late that afternoon, long after the first group would have arrived at the Meatheads' island, there was a distant roaring sound, and everyone looked up to see dragons streaming past in the sky. The Hooligans who had decided to spend the holiday with their dragons scrambled to grab their things and mount up before their partners left without them.

"Oooooohhhh, this is going to be so _exciting_!" Fishlegs squealed, clinging to his Gronckle. "I'll get to watch your babies hatch, Meatlug~!" The dragon snorted happily as she rose into the air.

"See you when you get back, Fishlegs," Hiccup called, waving.

"Bye Hiccup! I'll take lots of notes and make lots of sketches for the Dragon Book!"

"Thanks!"

Berk was very quiet after that. With every single dragon and most of the humans gone, the few Hooligans who had stayed behind didn't even fill a whole table in the Great Hall. They all ate supper together, the closeness and warmth and conversation better than eating separately in their empty houses.

When everyone did finally trickle back home, Hiccup climbed the stairs as usual - looked around his room, felt a tightness in his chest at the Night Fury-less state of it, then drew in a determined breath. He gathered up some papers and supplies and took them downstairs, where his father was going through a book of accounts. "Hey Dad," Hiccup greeted. He took a seat at the table and spread out his work.

After a while, Stoick remarked softly, "A bit lonely without the dragons, hm?"

"I miss Toothless," Hiccup muttered, eyes fixed on what he was writing.

"To tell the truth...I miss him, too. Him and Thornado both." Stoick gave a wry chuckle. "Sometimes I still can't believe it...after being at war with them my whole life, to live with them like this now...to care about two of them as much as - as much as _family_..."

_'I miss Toothless _so much_,'_ Hiccup thought. He didn't say it aloud because he'd already said it, but he couldn't stop thinking it.

"Heh. It's almost like I have two sons now instead of one."

"Finally got the brawny warrior kid you always wanted, huh," Hiccup remarked without rancor.

"The two of you make each other better," Stoick mused. Hiccup could hear the smile in his voice when he said, "I couldn't be prouder of you both, son."

"Thanks, Dad," Hiccup whispered, doodling in a corner of the page.

Stoick gave a deep sigh. After a while, he said, "I often wonder what your mother would have thought of all this...of what Berk has become, of how her son turned out..."

Hiccup finally looked up. "How do you think she would've taken it?"

Stoick smiled broadly. "Honestly? She would have been delighted."

Hiccup thought about this, replaying the small hints and clues he had, imagining could-have-beens. "I guess she _did_ give me a toy dragon when I was little." He grinned. "What kind of self-respecting Viking woman gives her baby a dragon to play with?"

"Only Valka," Stoick laughed. Then, his voice lowering with old, old sorrow, "Only you, Val..."

Hiccup ducked his head, idly sketching a faceless mother cradling a child.

After a while, Hiccup gathered up his things again, wished his father good night, and went upstairs. He had intended to go straight to sleep, but ended up lying awake in bed for another hour or two, sadly sketching. Pictures of Astrid, of Toothless, Astrid hurling an axe, Toothless scratching an itch under his wing, Astrid asleep, Toothless sunbathing, even a little love poem that Hiccup would never, ever want Astrid to actually read...

The next morning, Hiccup awakened early out of habit, even though there was no Night Fury eagerly bouncing on the roof this time. Hiccup sighed, lay there for a while missing Toothless, then dragged himself out of bed. With so few people left to take care of the entire village's animals, Hiccup had a lot of milking and feeding to do before he could get to his usual work.

With the exception of Snotlout's and Tuffnut's antics, the harder-than-usual work of looking after livestock, and the novelty of Stoick breezing through the village on wheels and occasionally getting Hiccup to make some adjustment or another, the day was very uneventful. Hiccup finally admitted to himself that it was boring, and it seemed _very_ quiet. He almost (not quite, but almost) wished that the Berserks or someone would attack, just for a bit of excitement.

_'Don't be stupid, Hiccup,'_ he told himself. _'You can only handle Berserks when you've got Toothless, but Toothless is _gone_.'_ Which depressed him again, so he finished up with the sheep as soon as possible so he could get to the forge for some more fulfilling work.

Two days later, Hiccup wished he had never even thought of Berserks. Because they attacked.

They came near dusk, while everyone was preparing supper together in the Great Hall. It was a whistling sound and an explosion that first alerted them. The Hooligans rushed to the door and stared in horror at the burning armory.

"We've got to start a bucket brigade," Hiccup said, but had only taken two steps when Stoick seized him.

"No," the chief ordered. "Evacuate _now_, someone put out the fire or at least move the meat away, grab any weapons you pass but don't stop for anything else! We've got to get out of the village."

"Dad?" Hiccup said, startled. Then he heard distant shouts. He looked out again, this time past the burning building, and saw torches. There were ships in the water, and men making their way up to the buildings. "We're under attack?!"

"GO!" Stoick shouted.

Most of those who had stayed behind for the holidays were not in the best of health, which was why they had chosen not to travel. Hiccup ran back the way he had come, elbowing Snotlout and Tuffnut sharply as he passed them. "Guys, this is no time to be arguing! Grab someone to carry and do what my dad told you!"

The elderly woman Hiccup tried to assist waved him off and then started whacking him when he didn't back away. "I've fought in battles since before you were born, boy," she said impatiently. "I can handle a Berserk or two. Besides, I'd crush you anyway, trying to use a scrawny thing like you as a staff."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, since the woman's shuffling gait wasn't reassuring, but he couldn't waste time trying to help someone who didn't want help. He whirled toward the fire, but Stoick had already thrown a bucket of water to douse it. The chief, rolling more quickly on the relatively even ground of the Great Hall than he had been on the rough pathways outside, then moved to the table, scooping up knives and handing them out.

"Hurry. Someone get that axe by the door-" A man with a pale face and a runny nose, who had stayed behind on Berk due to illness, picked up the weapon and whooped weakly. "Good. But stay _quiet_! With any luck, we'll be out before the Berserks even realize we're here."

"Come on, we can totally take the Berserks," Tuffnut scoffed. "We've done it before. How many times, Snot?"

"All the times we beat them," Hiccup interjected before Snotlout could answer, "were because we had _dragons_, Tuffnut."

"Yeah, so?"

Hiccup gestured, exasperated. "Do you see any dragons around, Tuff?"

"Uhhhhhh..."

"Dragons, schmagons," Snotlout snorted. "We can kick their butts anyway. We're _Vikings_!"

"Snotlout," Hiccup said, trying to hold onto his patience, "there's, like, ten of us, and only three-" Could he really count himself...? He wasn't much good in a fight without Toothless. "Two-" Well, his father would still count, at least partially. The Hooligan chief might be injured, but he could still fight even without using his legs. "Three. Two and a half. Only _two and a half_ of us able to really fight, versus _an army_ of them."

"Just send your wind mail or air mail or whatever to Fishlegs and call the dragons back!"

Hiccup slapped a hand over his face. He didn't bother to point out all the flaws in this suggestion, including the fact that air mail required Terrible Terrors, all of whom were currently at the nesting grounds. And air mail worked best anyway when you were sending messages _to_ Berk, the little dragons' home territory, rather than _away_ from it.

The rest of the villagers had left the Hall by now. "Just run into the woods and don't do anything stupid!" Hiccup said in exasperation.

"So, attacking the Berserks single-handedly, would that count as stupid, or cool?"

"Stupid, Tuffnut," Hiccup said with thinning patience. "That would count as extremely stupid."

"Oh. Hadn't thought your dad was that dumb, but, eh, oh well."

"Huh?!" Hiccup looked around and realized that he and the other two boys were alone. "Dad?!"

A familiar battle cry sounded from outside. Hiccup ran to the door again and was horrified to see his father firing a crossbow at the invaders, drawing their attention to himself. He was managing to hold them at bay momentarily, but they would swarm him as soon as he ran out of arrows, and even Stoick the Vast, armed with a sword and a torch, wouldn't be able to defeat an army of enemy warriors alone. "DAD!" Hiccup screamed.

"GO, HICCUP!" Stoick bellowed back.

A familiar crazed laugh echoed from a path below. "Oh, Hi~ccup~ I'm coming for you~"

"BACK OFF, DAGUR!" Hiccup shouted, running toward his father with his knife clenched in his fist.

"Snotlout!" Stoick roared, "Tuffnut! Get him out of here!"

"Dad-!" Hiccup kicked and struggled as the other teens hauled him away, but Tuffnut was tougher than him and Snotlout was stronger than him, and they were able to drag him along fairly easily. "Let me go! Let me _go_!"

"Quit whining, Hiccup," Snotlout snapped.

"We can't leave my dad down there!"

"I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," Tuffnut remarked.

Hiccup dug his heels hard into the ground and went limp, trying to break free of their hold on him. Snotlout made an irritated noise and simply flung Hiccup over his shoulder, continuing on as if he was carrying a sack of flour.

"Put me DOWN!"

"The Berserks will know where we are if you keep yelling like that," Snotlout pointed out.

"One of you go get my dad, just _stop_ for a minute and go get my dad-!"

"He's holding them off so _we_ can escape."

"Dad...!" He'd already lost Toothless and Astrid, now he was losing his father, too... _'I hate being so weak! I HATE it!'_

In the woods at night with nothing to light their way, there wasn't much the boys could do other than avoid the Berserks searching for them and wait for morning. "Of course this had to happen at the _worst possible time_," Hiccup muttered, climbing after the others. "No dragons, no Astrid, everyone gone..." He was surprised when Tuffnut seized his vest and Snotlout helped haul him up to the grassy ledge beside them. "Uh...thanks."

"You really are useless without Toothless," Snotlout laughed.

_'Way to kill my gratitude.'_ "Sorry for having a different area of expertise than you do."

"Are we gonna beat the Berserks in the morning?" Tuffnut asked nonchalantly, as if they were simply making plans for breakfast.

"You have any ideas for how three dragonless, barely-armed teenagers can defeat an invading armada?" Hiccup asked dryly.

"Just do your thing," Tuffnut said. Then, impatiently in response to the long silence, "Your Hiccup thing. Train a dragon, swoop in like a hero, blow up their ships? Piece of cake."

"Touching as your faith in me is, it's _really_ not that simple, Tuff. Particularly when a lot of the wild dragons are off on migration, too." Forced to curl up between Snotlout and Tuffnut for warmth, Hiccup tried to ignore their unwashed smell and finally managed to fall into an hour or so of light, restless sleep.

As soon as the sky lightened enough for them to see, Hiccup had them split up for reconnaissance. Tuffnut was assigned to the village itself, since he seemed to have a knack for blending in with enemy soldiers and would probably do the best if he happened to be caught.

The other two took the coast on either side. Hiccup's heart sank as he looked at the five Berserk ships in Berk's harbor and the many others dotted across the water farther out. "This is a disaster..." He gritted his teeth when he heard Dagur calling for him, taunting. If he just had Toothless...if he just had a few of Berk's dragons even without Toothless... _'Stop it, Hiccup,'_ he lectured himself. _'There _are no dragons_, so _figure out something else_.'_

Almost as if in answer to a prayer, there was a great dragon screech in the distance. Hiccup's head snapped up, his heart pounding with excitement and hope and apprehension - then his mouth dropped open when he saw the enormous serpentine figure making a beeline for Berk.

A great clamor rose from the village as the Berserks started to notice the alarming creature headed their way. Dagur's voice could be heard screaming orders.

Hiccup took off running, making his way as fast as he could to the place where he had arranged to meet back up with the other boys. Snotlout was already there. "Hiccup, did you SEE-?!"

"I saw it, Snotlout!"

"SCREAMING DEEEEAAAATH~~~!" Tuffnut hurled himself up to join them, his face completely alight. "It came back it came back it came back~~!"

"That's..._probably_ a good thing," Hiccup said uncertainly, looking back down at the village. "We can...maybe we can use this to our advantage..."

The giant mutated dragon and its Whispering Death family were now doing battle with Dagur's army. Half the fleet was now on fire, and the burrowing dragons were in the process of tunneling the ground to shreds.

"We can't let them keep this up, Berk is gonna be destroyed," Hiccup said in distress.

Dagur's voice once again rose amongst the mayhem. "HICCUP! Call it off! Show your face, you little coward! CALL IT OFF, or your daddy here _gets it_!"

"Ha ha ha! He thinks you've got the Screaming Death on a leash," Tuffnut cackled.

"Uh, Hiccup?" Snotlout said, pointing down at where Stoick stood, unsteady on his injured leg and with his arms bound. Dagur was pointing a crossbow at his head.

"I see them," Hiccup said grimly.

"CALL OFF YOUR MONSTER AND COME FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!" Dagur shrieked.

Hiccup closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Hey...guys?"

"Beautiful," Tuffnut purred, admiring the ongoing destruction.

"Guys, I'm gonna train the Screaming Death." _'Or die trying. Most likely the latter.'_ "Any ideas for what to name it?"

"Wait, you're gonna _what_?!" Snotlout yelped.

"Awesome~~!" Tuffnut crowed. "I claim dibs after you train it! I want to fly it, _me_!"

"I have to train it first, Tuffnut," Hiccup snapped. "Names, guys! What do I call it that's not 'Screaming Death' or 'Please Stop Attacking The People Who Are Threatening To Kill My Father'?"

"You should name it Screaming Killer Death, The Dragon!"

"Seriously, Tuffnut?"

"Don't listen to that idiot! Name it something cool, like Snotscream!"

"_Seriously_, Snotlout?"

"Fine, then name it Lloyd," Tuffnut pouted. "Since you all voted us down _last time_."

"Don't pick Lloyd, Lloyd is lame," Snotlout complained. "Snotscream all the way, baby!"

Hiccup groaned, scrubbing his face with his hands in frustration.

"I'M GIVING YOU TO THE COUNT OF FIVE, HICCUP!" Dagur yelled below. "ONE!"

Hiccup scrambled onto a rocky ledge and stretched out his arms as if to pull the dragon toward him.

"TWO!"

"Hey!" Hiccup called desperately to the Screaming Death, distractedly noting its snow-white color and rings of spiked protrusions. "Hey- Snowflake!" His voice changed to the cooing tone one would use on a beloved pet. "Hey, Snowflake~ C'mere, boy~!"

"Snowflake?!" he heard Snotlout and Tuffnut shrieking behind him in horror. "You're naming it _Snowflake_?! Noooo!"

"Shut up!" Hiccup hissed over his shoulder. He turned his attention back to the Screaming Death, who had stopped blasting fireballs at the Berserk fleet and was now looking at him. "Hey, Snowflake!" Hiccup chirped, motioning with his arms. "Hey, Snowflake, c'mere! C'mere~!"

The giant dragon cocked its head and barked mightily, then swarmed over to Hiccup, who gulped and struggled to hold his ground.

"H...Hey there, b-big guy, hey Snowflake...sorry about the name, I was under pressure-"

The Screaming Death rumbled at him in a friendly sort of way, though Hiccup's face twisted at the enormous gust of dragon breath wafting over him.

"Urgh...yeah, uh, hi there."

Snowflake roared briefly. Hiccup winced even though the volume was actually quite low for this particular dragon.

"Hey, so, Snowflake? Could you, um...stop tearing up Berk, please?" Hiccup reached out and set his palms against a tiny fraction of Snowflake's enormous snout.

The dragon growled curiously.

"Go." Hiccup backed away far enough for the dragon to see him, then gestured as hard as he could out toward the ocean. "Go _away_, okay? Really, I'm actually kind of glad to see you, I just..." He sighed. "I just need you to go away for now. I'm sorry."

Snowflake ate him.

Hiccup was too shocked to realize what had happened for a few seconds. Then, realizing he was wrapped up in a smelly, exceedingly slimy mound of muscle, he struggled against the enormous tongue and would have cried out if he wasn't clamping his mouth tightly closed, trying to minimize his intake of the dragonsbreath stench.

_'What happened?! What happened?! What did I do wrong?! I'm gonna die?! I'm gonna die like THIS?!'_ It was hard to breathe, he had to open his mouth before he suffocated; but then he was going to get a whole mouthful of dragon spit, he had to figure out _quickly_ where the entrance to the throat was and try to stay away from it...!

Hiccup's entire smelly suffocating world tipped. There was a sudden burst of sunlight, he started to tumble down and he caught a glimpse of giant fangs - but the tongue squirmed expertly around him, depositing him gently on the ground.

Hiccup sat there in a shaking, sodden, smelly heap.

"HICCUP!" several people were all yelling repeatedly. Snotlout, Tuffnut, Stoick, even Dagur.

_'I'm alive?!'_

Snowflake made what would have been a chirruping sound in a much smaller dragon. Then it turned, called to the Whispering Deaths, and swooped away.

"He ATE you!" Tuffnut was yelling in between howls of laughter. "He frickin' ATE you and then BARFED YOU UP again, ha ha ha ha ha!"

"HICCUP!" Stoick bellowed frantically from below.

"I-I-I'm fine, Dad," Hiccup gasped out. His voice was too unsteady to carry very far.

"He's fine, Chief!" Snotlout called down.

"HICCUP!" Dagur shrieked. "Get down here before I kill your father!"

"I'm _coming_, Dagur," Hiccup yelled raggedly, the near-death experience dampening his resentment. He stood up on shaky legs and picked his way down to where Dagur was holding his father hostage.

"You're all right, son?" Stoick demanded anxiously as soon as Hiccup came into view.

"I'm fine, I'm fine...I think maybe I'm too small for him to smell very well, so he was, like, tasting me instead..."

"You really think you're all that, huh, taming that monster," Dagur sneered, though there was genuine admiration and awe peeking through his eyes. "Come here, big shot. We've got some unfinished business to settle."

"Can I take a bath first?" Hiccup asked wearily.

There was a pause as Dagur sniffed. "...Fine."

About an hour later, Hiccup, clean and still a bit damp from his bath, sat cross-legged on the floor of one of the deserted houses with his hands tied behind him, as Dagur paced and gloated. "_Perhaps_, Hiccup, you will recall the last time we met."

"It was kinda similar to this time, actually," Hiccup mused. "Except there were Outcasts then." It would be nice to have some Outcasts around now, actually, since they'd become Berk's allies ever since Stoick and Alvin had reconciled. "How are you still alive, by the way? I thought Alvin would've _retired_ you for sure." Since there was a large, nasty scar on Dagur's face and neck that hadn't been there the last time Hiccup had seen him, perhaps it was safe to assume that Dagur hadn't managed to escape without cost.

Dagur whirled around, pointing his sword at Hiccup's neck. "Where is the Night Fury?" he snarled.

"Honestly, your guess is as good as mine, Dagur."

The Berserker chieftain stared. "...That dragon would never leave you willingly."

Hiccup shrugged. "Have you seen any other dragons around besides Snowfl- Besides the Screaming Death and his family?"

Dagur narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Come on, Dagur. Toothless would _never_ agree to be your mascot, he'd torch your whole island first."

"It doesn't matter what the _dragon_ wants! It only matters what _I_ want!"

"What do you want, anyway? I mean, what do you _really_ want, Dagur? Even if you did destroy Berk and capture Toothless, what good is that? ...Where's the fun in being a conqueror if there's nothing left to conquer?"

For a minute, Dagur looked confused. Then he snarled, seized Hiccup's vest, dragged him to his feet and out the door, and flung him at a group of Berserk soldiers. "Lock him up!" Dagur shouted. "Alone! Don't let him anywhere near the others!" He stomped away without waiting to watch his orders being carried out.

"Hiccup," Stoick said in concern as his son was marched past him.

"I'll be fine, Dad."

o.o.o.o.o

Isolated for hours at the bottom of a dry well, Hiccup had enough time to struggle free of the ropes, brainstorm increasingly stupid escape plans, fall into hopelessness, and then get bored. It didn't help that he was ravenously hungry, having barely eaten for over twenty-four hours.

At last, a rope was thrown down to him. He grabbed hold of it and was hauled out.

By Dagur.

Once Hiccup had regained his footing, he looked apprehensively at the deranged young chieftain, who regarded him with narrowed eyes and lips pressed tightly together.

Hiccup's stomach growled.

"You _hungry_, Hiccup?" Dagur hissed.

"Maybe a little," Hiccup muttered. He stumbled when Dagur threw an arm around his shoulders and started dragging him along.

"You could eat my boots," Dagur said venomously. "You don't know how long I've _dreamed_ of the day when Hiccup the Dragon Master would kneel before me and kiss my feet."

Hiccup sighed.

"Whaddaya say to that, Hiccup?" Dagur prompted forcefully.

"What do you want me to say, Dagur?"

Dagur suddenly swung around, gripping a fistful of the smaller boy's tunic. "How do you do it, Hiccup?" he growled. "How do you get these _beasts_ wrapped around your little finger?"

"You know, Dagur, being nice to them works a lot better than locking them up and mistreating them."

Dagur shoved him away. "You're going to get me that Screaming Death, Hiccup."

_'You've got to be kidding me.'_

"You're gonna-"

There was a piercing whistle of Night Fury fire from above.

"What?!" Dagur shouted, wildly searching the skies.

Hiccup stared up as well, sudden tears of relief and joy welling in his eyes. _'Toothless, Toothless, Astrid, Toothless, Astrid, Toothless~!'_ He felt like his heart was singing.

There was a blast of fire, and yelling from the Berserks.

"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted from the sky, echoed by Toothless's roar.

"I'm here-!"

Dagur clamped a hand over Hiccup's mouth and yanked him back, prompting a shriek of outrage from Toothless. "SHOOT THEM DOWN!" Dagur screamed at his men.

His order was drowned in a much, much, _much_ louder scream. A giant shadow passed over the ground as Snowflake soared out from behind the mountain, flanked by the Whispering Deaths - and an entire army of Gronckles, Deadly Nadders, Hideous Zipplebacks, and Monstrous Nightmares.

_'My flock.'_ Hiccup's heart felt like it was actually aching with happiness and affection as he watched Berk's dragons streaming out above the island, Vikings on their backs, preparing to defend their home.

"Sorry we're late, Hiccup!" Fishlegs shouted down from somewhere amongst the throng. "We had to carry the babies, and we stopped to pick up some help on the way!"

That was about the time when both Hiccup and Dagur paid more attention to the lusty human yelling closer to shore. As some of the dragons attacked the remains of the Berserk fleet, Outcast ships were landing on Berk's shores, expelling Alvin's motley warriors, who rushed to meet the Berserks in battle.

"No!" Dagur shrieked. "NO!" He tightened his hold on Hiccup and fled.

"Wait...Dagur, my leg, slow down-!" Hiccup was thrown over a shoulder for the second time in as many days. "Astrid, Toothless, hurry up and rescue me," he muttered.

Twenty minutes later, Dagur found himself cornered at the top of a cliff. The fuming Hooligan chief and the triumphant Outcast chief were blocking his ground retreat, a fierce Night Fury and equally fierce Viking maiden were snarling at him from the cliff's edge, a titan-class dragon and its kin were growling at him from the air, a troop of dragons and cocky Hooligan teenagers roared at him from the other side, and a band of cheerfully cursing Outcasts clustered below, some of them starting to scale the cliff.

The only thing that was preventing them all from ripping him to shreds was the small young man in his arms, who was smiling despite the knife pressed against his skin.

"Do you guys not get how the hostage thing works?" Dagur hollered. "I'll _slit his throat_ if you take a step closer!"

"Easy now, Dagur," Alvin said. Beside him, Stoick gave a wordless snarl deep in his throat.

"Do you seriously think this could possibly end well for you?" Snotlout laughed from above. "We've got dragons now, duh!"

"DAGUR!" Astrid bellowed, "Get your hands OFF my boyfriend, you _lunatic_!" Toothless let out a raging roar that doubtlessly expressed a similar sentiment.

Hiccup literally went weak in the knees for a moment, causing Dagur to stagger a bit. It was the first time Astrid had openly acknowledged the nature of their relationship, and Hiccup couldn't help feeling like he was dancing on clouds despite the knife still pressed to his throat.

"You've already lost, Dagur!" Fishlegs shouted. "Your men are all gone or captured! You _know_ you're gonna be a scorch mark if you so much as scratch Hiccup! There's no way you're getting out of this one!"

"If I'm gonna get roasted either way," Dagur shouted, "then I'm taking your precious Hiccup with me!"

"Dagur," Hiccup whispered, trying not to jostle the blade.

"Last words, Hiccup?" Dagur taunted.

"If you let me go," Hiccup murmured, "I'll call them off. All of them. You can just walk away, Dagur."

"I don't want mercy from _you_," Dagur spat.

"It's not mercy...it's a gift," Hiccup said quietly. "Happy Snoggletog, Dagur."

Dagur, still gripping Hiccup's arm but loosening his hold on the knife with his other hand, was silent, frowning.

After a minute, hoping that he wouldn't someday regret playing this card, Hiccup leaned close and whispered in Dagur's ear, "Let me go. Isn't it better to be allies, so all the chasing and taunting and games can be more fun instead of a waste of resources?"

"Hmph." Dagur finally let go, letting the knife dangle casually at his side as he propped his other hand on his hip.

"Toothless NO," Hiccup said immediately, throwing out one arm to shield Dagur and reaching the other toward his protectors, "Astrid _don't_, Dad NO!" He shot an urgent look over his shoulder and was relieved to see Alvin holding back the other chieftain.

"Let the boy handle it, Stoick," Alvin said. He winked at Hiccup.

"You too, Alvin," Hiccup said sternly. "Snowflake! _Down_!" He gestured hugely, and the Screaming Death, looking bewildered, eventually complied.

Hiccup felt like he was stretched far too thin, trying to shield someone who didn't deserve it from all directions at once, but miraculously, no one did anything too stupid. Astrid and Stoick, despite their raging and cursing, didn't actually let their weapons fly; Alvin rolled his eyes; and the dragons, though looking upset at being restrained, were obedient enough that they ignored Snotlout's and Tuffnut's urging to shoot as soon as Dagur was far enough away from Hiccup.

Hiccup had to go over to Toothless and physically hold him, feeling the Night Fury's growls reverberating through him as Toothless, pupils slitted, watched Dagur amble away. But even Toothless held back for his beloved human's sake, and finally Dagur was gone. Surely not for good, but at last the Hooligans and their allies could breathe easy and rush to Hiccup and smother him with anxious and triumphant expressions of love.

"I'm okay, Dad...Astrid, I'm so glad you're back...I really really really missed you, too, bud...thanks, Alvin, I really appreciate it...no no _no_, Snowflake, no licking!"

"You trained the Screaming Death," Stoick said, chuckling helplessly as he patted Snowflake's scaly white hide. Snowflake sniffed at him curiously.

"Have I told you before that you're amazing?" Astrid said to Hiccup, kissing him. Then she laughed when Stormfly eagerly butted her head against Astrid's back.

"You wouldn't mind too much if I took this big guy off your hands, eh?" Alvin said thoughtfully, patting Snowflake as well.

"Don't even think about it, Alvin," Hiccup warned.

"Ooooh, this is _so excellent_," Fishlegs gushed, starting to rattle off stats as he climbed onto the Screaming Death's head and began measuring one of its spines. "You're such a good dragon, aren't you," he cooed at the giant. "Came all the way to the nesting grounds to tell us Berk was in trouble, what a _good_ boy you are...!" Snowflake let out a vast, happy rumbling sound when Fishlegs scratched above its eyes.

It took a while for the village to calm down. At last, after the prisoners had been dealt with, the evacuees all accounted for, the dragon hatchlings settled in, the Outcasts fed, and the most urgent of the repairs patched up, Hiccup and Astrid found a little time to themselves that evening. They intended to spend the night with Stormfly to help her keep an eye on her hatchlings, but they first stopped by Hiccup's house to steal a quiet moment, knowing that Stoick was preoccupied with the unexpected guests and wouldn't be returning until very late.

Toothless sprawled comfortably by the fire, refusing to let go of his other half after the ordeals of their separation and the hostage crisis. Hiccup didn't protest too much. Wrapped in the dragon's forelegs, he shifted until he was comfortable and Toothless's breath was ruffling his hair instead of raising goose bumps on the back of his neck. "I, uh...would offer you stuff, but you can just grab whatever you want..."

"I'm not hungry," Astrid chuckled, lying down so she could curl close to him.

Hiccup's breath caught as he gazed into her eyes. "What you said back there...we're really...?"

Astrid blushed.

"Thank you, Astrid," Hiccup said quietly. "I...I need you."

She pressed a little kiss to his nose. "I still want to slap you for letting Dagur go."

"I didn't feel like letting someone get killed on Snoggletog if I could help it," Hiccup muttered, still not able to completely sort out his feelings on the matter.

"Oh!" Astrid exclaimed, suddenly sitting up, "Speaking of Snoggletog-"

The front door burst open. Hiccup, trapped, could do nothing other than let his face change color, and Astrid hurriedly scrambled away.

It was only Fishlegs, who was too excited to register their closeness anyway. "Eggs!" he crowed. "She laid _eggs_! The other one did, too, down where we're building the stables, right where they all hatched themselves!"

"Fishlegs, _all_ the dragons laid eggs," Hiccup said. "It's their mating season."

Toothless, irritated at the commotion, snorted and got to his feet, ambling up to Hiccup's room.

"Not our dragons! I mean- Gah!" Fishlegs waved his arms, trying to be more coherent. "The _Screaming Death_, Hiccup! She laid eggs, and so did the female Whispering Death! They came back to their birthplace to lay eggs of their own!"

Hiccup and Astrid stared, taking a minute to fully process this.

"Wait, Snowflake is a _girl_?!" Hiccup finally gasped.

"The Screaming Death is female, not male," Fishlegs confirmed. "She's gonna have babies~! They all look like normal Whispering Death eggs, though."

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other and laughed.

"Oooooh, I _love_ Snoggletog, it's the best holiday _ever_...!" Fishlegs exulted.

"Thanks for letting us know, Fishlegs," Astrid said. "You should probably check on Meatlug and her babies again, huh? Make sure they're doing all right."

"Yeah! Yeah, I'm gonna go keep her company right now!" Fishlegs rushed off again.

Astrid closed the door, then came over to her boyfriend and sat down beside him. She held his hands and drew in a deep breath. He squeezed her hands, smiling at her. "So. Uh, Hiccup," she said. "I guess you're pretty curious to know why I stole Toothless and ditched you, huh."

"I'm...I mean, it's no problem, Astrid," he assured her. "But I admit I wouldn't mind knowing where you went, if you don't mind telling me. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, it's okay. I'm just glad you're both back safely."

Smiling almost shyly, she pulled out a small package. "Here. It's, um, your Snoggletog present."

Hiccup accepted it, opened it, stared, and touched one of the sharp points very gently.

"I'd seen these before on Trader Johann's ship a few years ago, of course I didn't think anything of it then but I was watching you write the other day and I thought, well, and it was already too late, Trader Johann had already come for the Snoggletog shopping season and I didn't have much time left, I had to take a dragon out to track him down and find out where he'd gotten them and then find _that_ place and get them and then come back... I- I'm sorry I was gone so long, Hiccup. I'm sorry I had to take Toothless away from you, and that I couldn't decide what to get you soon enough, and... Well, um, do you like them?"

"They're beautiful," he breathed, gently shaking the pencils out into his hand. Slender and sturdy, with lead that wouldn't smudge nearly as much as charcoal, and such fine tips that would allow for incredible detail that was impossible with his usual pencils... "Astrid, they're _beautiful_. Thank you." He hesitated for a moment, then leaned close to press his lips to hers, the first kiss he had ever initiated. She kissed him back hard, then hugged him equally hard, relieved.

For a minute, Hiccup was utterly happy. Then his face fell, and he pulled away, and he screwed up his courage and said, "Astrid...I _had_ your gift ready, it was...it was a new axe, I'd been working on it for...but the attack, I- They ransacked the forge, your axe, it..." He couldn't look at her. His eyes fell down to the beautiful pencils instead, and his hands curled around them for a minute but then he couldn't look at them, either. His face felt hot with shame.

Astrid kissed him. "I love you," she whispered. She ran her hand through his hair and smiled. "Don't worry about it."

"I'll make you another one, it'll be way too late for Snoggletog but I can make it, just-"

She kissed him again.

There was the heavy sound of approaching dragon footsteps, then Toothless nudged his head between them and dropped something into his human's lap. The dragon sat back on his haunches, looking pleased with himself.

"Toothless!" Hiccup yelped, snatching up the notebook. "Don't drag stuff out of my room without my permission!"

"I haven't seen that one before," Astrid remarked. "Did you fill up your last one?"

Hiccup's face colored again. "I...this is, um..." It wasn't one of his usual notebooks - it was the one that was reserved mostly for his I-wish-Astrid-was-here doodles. And journal entries. And poems.

"Can I see?"

Cringing, Hiccup relinquished his hold on the notebook, and couldn't watch as Astrid opened it and began to page through it. He was grateful when Toothless lay back down and curled a wing around Hiccup to pull him close. It was a distraction from the embarrassment of knowing that Astrid was looking at all the drawings of her, except that Hiccup found himself latching on to her every exclamation and chuckle.

"Did you just imagine this one out, or were you really watching me sleep?"

"I...It was..." He huddled closer into Toothless, who looked at him curiously. "Please don't be mad at me..."

She smiled and turned the page. "Aww. You should do more of us kissing."

"I'm so pathetic, aren't I," he mumbled.

She turned another page. "You wrote a _poem_?!" she squealed.

Hiccup moaned. Sure enough, she read the entire thing out loud. Hiccup, cringing through the recitation, was grateful for Toothless's shielding wing.

"Aw, that is soooo sweet," Astrid said when she finished, but there was laughter in her voice.

Hiccup peeked under the edge of the wing, resigned. "I love you. I'm a miserable worm before you. Look to what depths you make me sink."

"Who needs another axe when I've got this?" Astrid said affectionately, clasping the notebook to her heart.

Hiccup crawled out from under his dragon's wing and, not quite daring to kiss Astrid again, hugged her instead.

After a while, they got up to go find Stormfly and her babies. Hiccup left the house with one arm around his best friend and the other holding hands with the girl he loved. They passed cheerful villagers and happy dragons, they could hear Stoick and Alvin drunkenly singing a holiday carol together in the Great Hall, and the cold of winter couldn't touch them through the protective warmth that filled their hearts.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: Stoick's injury might have been subconsciously inspired by myself... I hurt my foot a week ago and have been limping heavily ever since then. X'''D

I've had the "What if enemies attack during Snoggletog while the dragons are gone?" idea for a long time, and idly wondered if I should save it for Christmas. Christmas 2014 has been busy and I had other projects to work on, but at the very last minute, an outline started forming in my head on Christmas Eve, and I started drafting furiously, hoping I'd be able to finish and post before I went to bed on the 25th. I'd managed to post a lame picture of Hiccup &amp; Squirt on DeviantArt, as well as a few Kingdom Hearts stories, but I wanted to celebrate Christmas with a HTTYD fic too, because 2014 has been a HTTYD year for me. X3 :heart:

I've also had ideas for Snowflake for a long time (though I changed her name at the last minute, because I didn't want to someday have religion-related regrets about the previous name); I'm glad I finally got to write that bit of headcanon! :3 She's not an official member of Berk's flock, but she's fond of Hiccup and has an attachment to her birthplace, so she stops by every so often to visit. I hope she shows up again in seasons 3 and/or 4, this time as an ally, because it was mentioned in the show that they're supposed to return to the place of their birth to lay eggs of their own.

Apologies to FaitheFenyx, bulbul523, and Medli45! I loved all your requests and will write them eventually, I just wasn't able to finish them in time for Christmas this year. :ohnoes: (Though, technically, requests are still open through the end of December, so I do still have a week to work on them...!)

If you left reviews on other things I've recently posted, thank you so much! :D I will try to catch up with answering them tomorrow~! 3


	5. One Small Word

[untitled "No"]

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Astrid reflects on why she admires Hiccup.

o.o.o

I used to be the good girl, the golden child of Berk. I was _glad_ whenever the chief was nearby, because I wanted him to see that I was performing at my best and making my village proud.

That changed along with everything else, thanks to Hiccup. I used to think that he was weak, spineless and pathetic, but that was before I knew him. Before I started paying attention enough to _truly_ know him. If I had, I would have realized a lot sooner that Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third is one of the most brave, stubborn, rebellious Vikings in the archipelago, despite being a fraction of the size you'd expect a brave, stubborn, rebellious Viking to be.

Hiccup, my loving, funny, clever, idiotic, insane, _infuriating_ boyfriend is the reason why I'm now usually second best, sometimes break the rules, and am now guilty rather than proud half the time his father's around, because I'm probably helping Hiccup hide the effects of our latest adventures and screw-ups from him.

I don't care much, though, because it's worth it. The night I fell in love with him, when I realized with such amazement that he is someone I can respect and trust and care about and follow, I've never forgotten it. He never lets me forget it, because he's _always_ doing something or other to remind me why I love him so much.

Stoick comes storming across the deck toward us.

I have to make a conscious effort to maintain my stance and composure, to _not_ squirm with guilt or cringe or hang my head or show that I'm intimidated by backing away. This is between Hiccup and his father, as always.

Unlike me, Hiccup doesn't bother to pretend. Stoick is about three times his size and twenty times his strength. The apprehension is clear on Hiccup's face, in his bowed shoulders as he watches the chief approach. Hiccup doesn't _look_ or act strong at all; his real strength has always been elsewhere.

"Well, didn't you just pick the wrong ship, eh? I am Eret, son of-!"

Stoick, without breaking stride or even _looking_ at the dragon trapper, shoves him back as if flicking away a flea. Hiccup is the one he addresses. "You. Saddle up, we're going home."

"No."

It's just one word, spoken softly, unsteadily; it's almost a whine. Hiccup knows how easy he is to crush, that he has no chance of overpowering anyone in a confrontation. If the chief were to scoop up his son and haul him kicking and screaming back to Berk, there isn't a thing Hiccup could do to stop him.

Yet he keeps speaking out anyway. Hiccup _always_ stands up for what he believes in, even if the path he chooses is a difficult one. Despite all the disbelief and mockery and opposition and disasters, Hiccup has never obeyed or agreed just for the sake of conforming. He is always, always willing to risk himself for things he feels strongly about.

"Of all the irresponsible-!"

"I'm trying to protect our dragons and stop a war! _How_ is that irresponsible?!"

Arguments between Stoick and Hiccup are so familiar that I feel myself relaxing even though I probably shouldn't. Things will work out. Stoick will rage and bluster and goad Hiccup into doing something stupid and reckless and dangerous, Toothless will save him, and he'll end up being right. I just wish that Stoick would be...gentler, more thoughtful...I know it's too much to ask, but then maybe Hiccup would take his worries to heart and be more _careful_ as he proves himself right, so he doesn't _have_ to always nearly kill himself...

He's so rarely able to enforce his own beliefs. He knows what to do, but he'd never be able to _do_ it with no one to back him up.

I guess that's why he has a Night Fury now. And that's why he has me. Hiccup might need the two of us to forge a path for him, but _we_ need him to show us where the path _is_.

"I'm still going to try."

That's my Hiccup. Always challenging the supposedly impossible, always finding some way to make it possible after all.

"This is what I'm good at. And if I could change your mind, I can change his, too."

My first instinct is to follow him, but the good girl in me never really died, my chieftain orders me back and he's endured enough frustration and heartbreak for one day. My heart longs to fly, but my tribe needs me, and when Hiccup's always rushing off so impetuously, _someone_ has to stay behind and take care of our responsibilities. I'm going to have to train him to let us take turns or something, stop making me always be the responsible one while he always gets to chase the horizon...

In the meantime, it looks like I'll have to just trust him again. Trust that Hiccup's instincts are still true, that Toothless can protect him even without my help, that they'll both come back to me safely with their usual glory and triumph.

Someday I'll be able to teach Hiccup that he can trust me just as much.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I could not think of a title. orz

Sorry for the posting drought lately. I've been a good girl and have actually been spending more time working on important real life stuff than writing fanfiction. :) (And the stuff I _do_ try to write usually isn't cooperative. DX)

Anyway, I was watching HTTYD2 again yesterday, and that scene where the Berkians come to "rescue" Hiccup from Eret's crew, when Stoick orders Hiccup to get back on his dragon and come home, I love Hiccup's resigned, apprehensive tone when he refuses. It's so _Hiccup_, he embodies that "strength in weakness" quality more than anyone else I can think of. This vignette started writing itself in my head while I was watching that scene.

This is the first time I've written in Astrid's POV. XD I'd like to do Stoick someday, though for some reason I anxiously shy away from the thought of trying to write Hiccup in first person. o.O


	6. (Tooth part 2) Hunting For Trolls

Hunting For Trolls

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Young Toothless watches ten-year-old Hiccup hunt for trolls. Sequel to _Scaring Away Monsters_ from Toothless's perspective.

o.o.o

I can't wait until I mature and can finally leave my stupid, stupid clutchmates. Why don't they _understand_? DUH hunting at night is easy easy easy! Most of the prey is asleep, and even the awake ones can't see us 'til our teeth are already in their necks. (I KNEW I had teeth, stupid Reckless and Stubborn, I have teeth just like them, they just took longer to grow, that's all. But my stupid clutchmates _still call me No Teeth_ because they like how it makes me mad, I hate it hate it hate it!)

But what if we _can't_ hunt at night? What if something bad happens and we're hungry and we have to find food when it's so bright and hot and the prey can see us easy? We should still be able to hunt even in the day, too, but my aeriemates are so stupid they won't listen to me!

That's why I'm hunting all by myself. Mama and Reckless and Stubborn can sleep all day, I don't care; I'm going to catch a meal before the sun goes down, and I will prove that I'm smart enough and strong enough and good enough to feed myself no matter what happens.

I am very careful and silent. The boar herd doesn't see me until I am very, very close. I see an old boar lagging behind, it's slow and limping. I can catch it. I stare at it and creep close.

_No_, I forgot and arched my wings before I pounced, stupid stupid stupid me it's daytime they can see my shadow move when I do that, my prey squeals an alarm and now the whole herd is running!

I'm angry at myself as I chase them, not trying to hide anymore. But I don't care that I made a mistake; I'll still catch a boar and prove I'm smart and strong and good.

I leap. I slam my paws into the old slow boar, it crashes to the ground screaming _terror panic terror_. I growl my dominance and bite its neck to show that I won - but not hard. This boar smells gross to eat, I'm not going to eat it for real because I'm only a little hungry, not a lot hungry. But I win now, I'm the best, and I feel happy when I let the boar wriggle free and run-limp away. Someday if I ever _am_ hungry hungry hungry and I can't hunt at night, I will hunt under the sun and catch a meal and I won't die. I am amazing.

_Noises_.

I don't know what they are at first, but they frighten me, so I hide. Then I see the things making those noises, and I know now why I'm frightened.

_Humans_. Human voices chittering chittering chittering but never saying anything. Stomping so _loud loud loud_ through the forest like they calling for predators to come eat them, but I know now that if anyone is stupid enough to answer that call, the human monsters will turn on them and overpower them instead. Humans are scary. I barely ever saw them since that time a long time ago when I saw their cubs and didn't know what they were, but I'm older now and I know better.

"Dad, could you _listen_ to me when I talk to you? There's something else I wanted to do today!"

"It can wait, Hiccup. Trust me, when you smell the fish cooking, freshly-caught and prepared with your own hands, you're going to be glad we took some time off to do this together."

"_You're_ the one who's taking time off from your duties! This isn't a vacation for _me_, it's a- it's an interruption, Dad!"

"You're whining, Hiccup. You need to stop, it's not very Viking-like. Or very future-chief-like, for that matter."

"Argh!"

I know them. I _recognize_ them. The big one with the deep scary voice is the sire of the tiny youngling. _I know that youngling_. He's the one I found a long time ago, the one I thought was dying of cold before I found out he's a monster, the one who was nice to sleep with, who cuddled with me and smelled and tasted good who I wished was my clutchmate. I'm mad at him for tricking me. I would go out there and knock him to the ground and bite him if I wasn't scared.

He is unhappy. He staggers after his sire, trying to keep up, because his sire's pace is very much faster. "Dad...could you slow down, please...?"

"Almost there, Hiccup!"

I should go home. I should go sleep, and rest before night comes and I have to get up again with my aeriemates. But instead I am following the humans, silent and stealthy so they don't know I'm here. I don't know why I'm following them when I should be going away.

They come to the river and finally stop. They move around a lot in that one small place, and they take off their dead fur and their metal shells, but finally when they are standing in the water holding long sticks, they go very still. The sire is especially intent, and finally he stabs his stick down into the water, and when he pulls it out again, there is a fish wriggling on the end of it. I lick my chops because I want that fish very much even though I can't go out and grab it and eat it.

The sire is teaching his offspring how to fish. It would make me upset to see all that fish that I can't have, except that the youngling is so bad at fishing that it's funny. Finally he even falls into the water, and when his sire seizes him and lifts him out again, he is all wet and dripping and so very unhappy, I almost laugh and reveal myself. But soon he is shivering, and I realize he is very cold and maybe might die again because he can't make enough heat inside himself to keep warm.

His sire drags him back to dry ground and- and-?!

They are _stripping away the youngling's skin_!

I am frightened and horrified, until I see that there is no blood and that the youngling is not in pain, only still miserable and ashamed to be so bad at fishing. He still has skin underneath, so pale and fragile and a very different color than the outer skins, the same color as his face and forepaws. I didn't know that humans have skin under their skin.

The sire wraps his offspring in dead fur, then he kneels and...and...

He _makes fire_. I don't know _how_, I don't understand it, he shoots so _slow_ that I don't even realize he's shooting at first, and the fire came out of his paws instead of his mouth! But there is fire now, still burning bright on the pile of dead wood. The human makes his offspring sit next to the fire, and he puts the limp wet outer skins near the fire too. Then he goes back into the river to fish, as the youngling gets warm again from the fur and the fire and is unhappy.

After a while, when the sire is focused very much on fishing, his youngling starts creeping, slow and stealthy but not as stealthy as me. He sheds the big fur and he pulls his outer skins back onto his body, even though they are still a little wet, and he pulls on his own smaller dead fur and the pieces of dead hide that go on his hindpaws and around his middle. Then he creeps away into the forest when his sire isn't looking.

Fish, fish, I want to stay close to the fish, but they make me upset when I can't eat them, so I will follow the interesting youngling instead. When his sire can't see him anymore, he stops creeping and he moves faster and gets loud loud loud again instead of just loud, and he's excited now instead of unhappy. He stops and takes out something that looks like a bundle of leaves but smells like charcoal and like very dead wood. He paws at it and looks at it for a while, then tucks it away again and continues on, more excited now.

After a while, I decide that he is hunting something. He keeps stopping to look for the passage of his prey, and even though he's looking at nothing sometimes and at very different marks at other times, maybe he is hunting in some strange human way that I don't understand but makes sense to humans. After a while, he gets just loud again instead of loud loud loud, and he creeps more slowly. Maybe he has found his prey, but the only thing close is a bear, and I know that this youngling is very too much weak to catch and kill a bear, so I don't understand.

The human youngling creeps, stalking the bear, and I creep too, stalking the human. He hides behind a tree and peeks out. His eagerness turns to surprise and dismay, and he lets out a noise. "Aah...!"

The bear hears him. She looks up, and she smells the fish on him, and because she is hungry and has a cub to feed too, she approaches.

"Whoa, okay, not a troll, definitely not a troll, sorry, I didn't mean, I'll just, aaahhh...!"

He is frightened. Maybe he is so stupid he didn't know he was hunting a bear who can kill him.

She doesn't like his panicked noises, so she growls and lopes toward him faster.

"Dad! Dad, help!"

He is running now, and she is chasing him. She will catch him and he will die. "DAAAAADDD!"

I run and run to look for her cub, I find it playing with a turtle. I pounce and snarl and shriek a warning as if I'm about to fire. _"BE AFRAID!"_ I shout at the bear cub, pinning it to the ground and digging my claws into its thick fur. _"I threaten you! You are in very much danger from me!"_

_"MAMA!"_ the cub shrieks. _"MAMA, HELP!"_

Good. Good. His dam hears him, and she roars back in alarm. I leap away and fly and run, and I am far away by the time the bear reaches her cub.

It's the human youngling I'm looking for now. I find him still running and terrified. Does he think the bear is still chasing him?

"HICCUP!"

"Dad!"

The human sire crashes through the trees to rescue his offspring, just like the bear dam rushed to rescue her own offspring. Humans are monsters, but I guess they're not monsters to each other...

"_Hiccup_!"

"Dad, I-"

The human sire seizes his offspring with one paw and brandishes his human blade with the other, thrumming with protection-fury and looking around wildly for a threat even though the threat is gone now.

"Th-There was a bear, I, I'm sorry, I was trying to track down a troll b-but I, I didn't, I thought it was, it was a bear..."

It's quiet. Slowly the two humans calm down, and the adult puts his blade away. Then he turns to his offspring, and now he is angry, and the youngling is afraid. The big scary human is not angry at me, they don't even know I'm hiding here watching them, but I'm still afraid too and I shrink down as small as I can.

"Why did you run off, Hiccup?"

"I-I'm sorry, I just-"

"You could have been _killed_! A bear could take off your head with one blow!"

"It's not like I was _trying_ to get attacked by a bear...!"

They are arguing arguing arguing in their strange voices. I slink away and hurry back to my aerie so I can rest and sleep before night comes.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

_Eleven years later_

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Half Of Me had to go talk to the queen of another human pack, and we flew to that foreign nest together OF COURSE, but dragons have to hide from these foreign humans, so I stayed in the woods aaaaallll day while the human leaders talked.

But it's okay now, because now it's nighttime and Half Of Me sneaked away and now me and Him are here together. He will sleep with me tonight before He has to go back to talk to the foreigners some more.

"You caught a deer, huh." He is proud of me for being a good hunter.

_"I caught some prey, I ate and ate and my belly is full. Half Of Me will eat, too."_

"No thanks, buddy, I'm good."

_"Half Of Me will eat!"_

_"Not hungry."_

_"Why not hungry?"_

_"Already ate."_

Yes, He did; I can tell. I am disappointed.

_"Love you,"_ He says, trying to make me feel better.

_"Yes, You love me. I am a very good dragon, I can hunt and feed my other half and my flocklings."_

_"Good dragon, good hunter. Better than me."_

_"Hah, of course better than You!"_

He smiles His human smile. _"I can hunt."_

_"Half Of Me hunts and catches hearts, not prey."_

_"Hunt monsters."_

_"?"_

"Heh. I used to hunt trolls, you know."

_"Say it in real talk!"_

_"Can't, don't know right words... Monsters. _[Trolls.]_ Hunt, careful. But not catch._ [Because they don't actually exist...]"

_"Silly youngling Half Of Me hunted __bears__!"_

_"Confused."_

_"Little Half Of Me youngling. Hunt and hunt, find a bear, You were surprised and scared and You fled. I __saved__ You because I am amazing."_

"What are you _talking_ about?" He is confused.

_"Youngling Half Of Me!"_

"'Youngling,' like a kid? You mean, like...when I was little? _[Me-who-was, small, little?]_"

_"Yes! Half Of Me hunt a bear. You almost died; I saved You."_

_"Half Of Me, I hunt trolls when I'm little baby, not mature."_

_"Yes."_

_"Not meet when babies! Only mature. _[I was fifteen when we met, bud; loooong after I'd stopped hunting trolls.]"

I huff in frustration. _"Half Of Me was a youngling, hunt bears/monsters, I watch You and rescue You."_

_"...Watch me? BABY you watch BABY me?"_

_"Yes."_

He stares at me. He is shocked. _"Confused! Me and you meet when we're older, not babies!"_

_"Babies, dragon hatchling and human cub. Half Of Me lost cold hungry tired, sleep under a tree. I like this cold hungry lost thing, I lie down with it my Half Of Me and make Him warm. We sleep until Half Of Me's sire comes and makes me scared and I flee."_

_"..."_

_"I see Half Of Me again, He is older but still not mature. Fishing with His sire. Half Of Me falls in water, very funny; __scary__ strip off His dead skins and get warm close to the fire; Half Of Me sneaks away, hunting, hunting, for monsters? Half Of Me says He hunts __monsters__? No, hunt a bear, find a mother bear, I save Half Of Me and He flees and His sire finds Him and roars at Him."_

"...Are you telling me you SAW me, when I was ten years old hunting trolls?! _Five years before we met_?! _[Half Of Me see me when I am baby and he is baby?!]_"

My other half can be very, very smart, but other times he can be very, very stupid. This is one of his Very Stupid times. _"YES."_

"Wow! Wooowww, wow, really?! Seriously, that's- Oh my- _[Excited!]_"

_"Why?"_

He is _very_ excited to know that I saw Him when we were younglings, but I don't know why. We are not scared sad alone younglings anymore; we are happy together adults.

But I like making Him excited; He's cute. _"I saw You later, too. You hurt Your pack on accident, just like I hurt my flock on accident. No one likes little Risk human; no one likes little Risk nightwing, until Risk human catches Risk dragon and we love each other, we are two halves, we stop hurting our flocks and we help them instead and make them one flock, we are the best and amazing when we're together."_

"...You _saw_ me. When I was still the town screw-up. You _saw_ me." There is grief but also wonder in Him as He reaches to caress my face. "But you were your flock's hiccup, too, huh." He nuzzles me. _"Me and you are bad alone; me and you together are good."_

I'm about to say yes yes yes, but then I think maybe He is wrong. No. We are _not_ bad alone. We have _good_ hearts, we have _always_ been good and amazing, but people are stupid and could only see how good we are when we found each other and were amazing together. _"Me and You are __good__ alone,"_ I say. _"Me and You together is BETTER."_

He smiles a human smile and then a dragon smile. _"Yes yes yes yes yes."_

o.o.o

Author's Notes: **Please vote in the new poll on my FFN profile! I'm probably going to revamp my interpretation of the Hiccup/Astrid relationship (I realize now what I've been doing wrong and why, though I still haven't figured out yet how to improve it), and I'd like to know what my readers think of my current HiccStrid interpretation.**

**Also, the FFN kiriban's open again; feel free to request a fic!** (I'll extend the offer to readers on other Web sites if my FFN readers take too long to claim it. :p)

I don't know whether Vikings actually practiced spear fishing or not, but I do know that they caught freshwater fish as well as fish from the sea. Since Hiccup was apparently able to go hunting for trolls during that fishing trip Stoick talked about in HTTYD1, I figured that they would therefore not have been confined to a boat, and I also found the image of Vikings with fishing poles to be odd. Spear fishing makes more sense to me, but I wasn't able to find any confirmation about it when I looked it up (not that I looked very hard). ...It's possible that they should have been catching fish with nets during a salmon run instead.

I don't know if the pages of Hiccup's notebook are made from wood-based paper or animal-based parchment (or something else entirely)... Since the HTTYD books have some anachronisms (like Fishlegs's glasses and the fact that Hiccup goes around jotting things down in a notebook at all), I just went with paper.

What I started doing in _Scaring Away Monsters_ is writing my headcanon (or rather, one version of my headcanon) for Tooth's life before HTTYD1, up until Hiccup shoots him down. I have no idea at the moment if the whole thing will always just be a series of one-shots, or if I should wait until I'm finished and then re-edit it into a multi-chaptered story.

_Hunting For Trolls_ has been written for a while, but I finally decided to post it now because I've recently been working on the scenes that come afterward, and decided that I should break off _Hunting_ into its own installment, since it's so different from the newer scenes which take place when Tooth is in the Red Death's flock. Depending on how long the Red Death sequence ends up being (it's currently about 3,600 words), it'll either all get posted in one installment, or split into two or three. ...And I _might_ just keep going and do all of HTTYD1 from Tooth's POV; who knows. It depends on how fresh I'm able to make it, since I know that quite a lot of people have already written stories like that.


	7. Altered Reunion

[untitled "Altered Reunion"]

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Valka's perspective of reuniting with Hiccup. Differs from the movie in some ways.

o.o.o

We flew a long way for this mission. Afterward, there is no hurry, and some of the freed prisoners are hurt or weakened; we can afford making stops to rest.

It is late again by the time we near home, and those of us who are day-creatures are eager for supper and sleep. I am among them until Cloudjumper gurgles quietly at me, and what he says makes me instantly alert. _"Strangers, dragon-and-human."_

A _human_?! This close to our hidden sanctuary?! _"Where?"_ I expect him to say that they are below, some errant ship that has strayed too far into strange waters. Instead, he indicates _up_.

_How can there be a human in the sky?!_ Unless... _"Human is prey?"_ I ask. The thought disturbs me, for most dragons dislike the taste of human flesh and blood. There must be something very wrong for a dragon to prey upon a human.

_"No! Two halves,"_ is the answer.

No. No. There is something wrong here, Cloudjumper has misunderstood. Humans do not give themselves so fully and willingly to dragons, there's something _wrong_.

I signal my flockmates to fall back while Cloudjumper and I investigate. We position ourselves just beside and below where Cloudjumper says the dragon-and-human pair is, I grip my weapon in readiness, and then we rise.

I don't know what I'm seeing at first, it's so strange. There's a small, sleek black dragon, covered with man-made gear yet gliding along at leisure, except for the unease caused by the appearance of myself and my other half. The creature on his back is a man, a young one, strangely thin but very tall - he's not even riding. He's _lying_ along the dragon's back in the middle of the sky, as comfortably as if in his bed at home.

The black dragon is staring at us with surprise and worry, completely disregarding his strange burdens. I think that the human hasn't noticed us until he sighs in exasperation, of all things, and rises up to a sitting position. "Oh, come on, Dad; _really_?"

At first, I am utterly perplexed by his reaction. He's _riding a dragon_ above the clouds, yet the first thing he thinks when he becomes aware of another presence is that someone he knows and doesn't particularly want to see is following him? Are there _other_ dragon riders?! Why does he sound as nonchalantly annoyed as a boy safe at home whose parent is barging unannounced into his room?

But no, now his expression has changed, and now it makes sense. Shock at his first sight of me, wordless shock that does not abate as his muscles tense, as his careless posture tightens into something more careful and competent, his hands slowly lowering to the handles he must use to control his captive.

I'm a little surprised that he hasn't attacked us yet. He must not yet have seen battle, if he's wasting _this_ much time just staring in shock rather than attacking. A human warrior attacks without thought or question; they _always_ attack and maim and kill, without bothering to find out first if it's an enemy they're killing. Thus do they _make_ enemies out of those who were not.

This boy, however, for whatever reason, has not attacked, so we will capture instead of kill. If I can convince him to release his captive to me, we will let him go without harm.

I signal Cloudjumper to descend. We will circle around and strike from the opposite direction, where this untried boy will not expect us.

As we come bursting back above the clouds, I have to pause for a moment just to admire this little foreign dragon, whom I'm beginning to suspect may be a Night Fury. He is able to blend so easily into the night sky that humans would never see him; I only need to hear the shriek of his swift flight or see his distinctive blue-violet fire to be sure. I have never seen a Night Fury this close before. He is beautiful.

The human is still gaping like a fool. The dragon flounders for a minute and then narrows his gaze in warning as he faces us. If his master is not cruel to him, he might not realize he's in bondage. I suppose I have to give the _still_ stunned, useless boy some credit, that he has not been monstrous enough for his prisoner to know to flee from him.

Obeying my instructions, Falls swoops in to capture the boy. The Night Fury senses it first, but does not turn quickly enough to resist; Falls manages to snatch the boy off his back without injury.

I wasn't quite prepared for their screams. From the human, I expected anger and cursing; instead, his anguished wail startles me, as if it was a loved one that was wrested from him rather than a mere possession. The dragon's cry cuts me deeper - it is the scream of someone who is having half of his heart torn away from him.

_'Cloudjumper was right,'_ I think in a daze, _'they are two halves. Somehow, _somehow_ they have become two halves. How?! How did this thing happen?! And does this man _know_ he is half of a dragon, or will he someday break that beautiful creature's heart?'_

The human boy, borne along with our flock in Falls's claws, is still shouting desperately. I can't quite hear what he's saying, his voice is too thin to penetrate my mask and the rush of wind. Presumably, he does not like to be separated from his dragon.

Where _is_ the Night Fury? _"Half Of Me, where is Nightwing?"_

_"Fell."_

_"__Fell__?"_ Falls didn't hurt that beautiful creature, did he? Surely not, and certainly not enough to have damaged his wings or tail.

One of the guardians reports to me that the Night Fury did indeed inexplicably fall out of the sky. Some of our sea-dwelling flockmates caught him and are bringing him, but it disturbs me that he fell at all. Was his flight damaged _before_ the capture? But he was flying perfectly well-

The fin. That strange red tailfin, of course it was man-made; all those straps, all that leather and metal weighing him down - he _has_ lost his flight. It's only by a human's grace that he can even get back into the air at all.

I will _kill_ whoever did this to him.

We reach the Sanctuary. I direct Cloudjumper and Falls into one of the outlying caves with our captive. While we wait for the sea-dwellers to send us his companion, I will see how well this boy does with dragons who do not belong to him.

At last, I can hear his voice clearly - the first words out of his mouth are about his dragon. He thinks we have left him behind.

Halfbarb's approach startles him, but he does not panic or attack. I do think for a moment that he's about to attack, but before I can move, the weapon he's drawn bursts into flame. I am almost as mesmerized as Halfbarb, watching this fireskin flame dancing a very not-dragon dance. It's a clever tactic I would never have thought of - few dragons would attack a creature with such strange and interesting fire, particularly when the creature makes no threatening gesture.

Runner, though as entranced as the rest of us, is nevertheless more careful about lowering her guard. She challenges the strange intruder without aggression.

The flame vanishes. The boy stoops briefly; again, before I can even move to stave off a potential attack, he is shooting again, two-head gas this time, in a neat circle around his own body. The gas ignites, covering him in a scent-shield. As he approaches Runner with forepaw outstretched, it's difficult to tell whether it's a dragon or a human that approaches.

_Not_ a forepaw; a _hand_, of course he's human!

Snapping out of the trance, I make my own approach, instantly drawing his attention to me. I don't like that this stranger is so adept at seducing my flockmates.

"Who are you?"

I'm a little startled at the switch from dragon language to the human speech I have gone so long without.

"The dragon thief? Drago Bludvist?"

My heart instantly leaps in anger at the name. It takes another moment before I register the boy's angrily uncertain tone as he said it - as if Bludvist's name is only distant hearsay to him. He does not know Bludvist's face; he is not an ally of that monster.

"Do you even understand what I'm saying?!"

I barely register the frustration in his voice, I'm distracted by distant vibrations. They have arrived. I call out with my staff so they will know where to bring him, and the Night Fury is dropped before me.

"Toothless!"

As I stand in confusion, registering the relieved worry in the boy's voice and belatedly realizing that the word must be a ridiculously incongruous name, the boy is already rushing to his companion. He really does greet the dragon like an other half, throwing himself at a master of the night skies without hesitation, not showing a moment's fear of the powerful jaws so close to his face and neck, not flinching at the Fury's delighted licking and nuzzling, hands absently caressing that sleek black hide as the boy spares a glare for me. "You really had me worried there..."

They are two halves. I don't don't don't know _how_, but there is another dragon-and-human pair in this world who is like me and my own dragon half, and I want to see his face.

_"Light, please."_ My flockmates obligingly call fire into their mouths and illuminate the cave for me. Beautiful and Dragonhalf look around uneasily for a moment, then the Night Fury wraps himself around his boy, ready to shield him instantly should that fire be directed toward the human's vulnerable flesh. Dragonhalf's frightened eyes are on me, rightfully singling me out as the greatest threat. His other half takes the cue and fixes a warning glare on me as well. I must reassure the dragon that I have no wish to harm his beloved.

I drop my weapons and approach low to the ground, but Beautiful is having none of it. His other half is too precious and too easily damaged, he will take no chances. They're backing away in unison, Beautiful warning me, _"Stay away stay away stay __away__,"_ Dragonhalf looking uneasy at my presence yet secure in his other half's encompassing protection.

I feel bad for overcoming Beautiful with such a cheap trick, but he has a kind heart - his warnings were not aggressive, and he was not quick to harm me. When he wakes up and sees that his precious thing is still safe, he will forgive me. For now, however, he is barring my way, and I need to investigate this remarkable human foreigner for myself. I send Beautiful to sleep.

Dragonhalf's shock is almost amusing, as his Night Fury drops away from him and he is very suddenly left unshielded. Uneasiness turns back to fear as he backs away from me.

Still he has not drawn a weapon, neither a human weapon nor his dancing flame. Surely he is not a Viking. He must be from some distant, more peaceful land. For a moment, I wonder if he is simply a coward, but for all the fear in his eyes and the wariness in his body, he does not flee or cower. His stance is one of defense and conciliation, not submission. Perhaps, buried deep down, I can detect a spark of the same amazed curiosity that I myself feel.

"Ummm..." He recoils from my paw - my hand - as if it might bite him. I don't know why until I'm relishing the sensation of his facial stubble under my fingertips, and very belatedly remember that humans who are strangers do not touch each other's faces, it is too intimate a gesture.

He's leaning away from me, shoulders hunched defensively, completely baring his throat as if that's preferable to enduring my touch, tilting his chin as far away as he can get from my fingers. (Not far enough. I forgot how _nice_ men's newborn beards feel to touch.) Despite his obvious discomfort, he's made no move to attack me or even drive me away. He must be a peacemaker to his core, to be so tolerant of something he so strongly dislikes.

His voice is soft enough that it doesn't startle me this time. "Wh-What did you do to my dragon?"

What?

"My...my dragon...Toothless..."

He doesn't know that the incapacitation is harmless sand very brief. For all he knows, I have hurt his other half - yet still, he does not attack or even threaten me. His gentleness is incredible. I must make that his name instead, I haven't even seen many _dragons_, much less humans, have such a strong desire to do no harm. "...Your 'Toothless' is...not hurt." It has been a while since I've used human speech, and a _very_ long while since I've spoken it at close proximity to a human who's not cursing me. The words feel so strange in my mouth.

Dragonhalf who is now Gentleheart very carefully edges past me, then hurries to his other half's side and crouches beside the sluggish, disoriented Night Fury. "Toothless...Toothless, hey, wake up, bud..."

Beautiful croaks at his boy in bleary-eyed, good-natured confusion.

"Hey, Toothless, hey, buddy, that's right, look at me, hey, good morning, good morning~ C'mon, please be all right..." Beautiful licks his face and croons at him, and Gentleheart smiles in relief.

There's not much light left, nearly all my flockmates have gotten bored and wandered away. "Gentleheart," I say, "come. I will...show you something."

"O-Okay, but, um, who are you? What are you going to do with us?"

Oh...that's right, we'd captured them. "We won't hurt you. Sorry. You are not threats, not enemies. We will show you our very good nest, show you to _Him_. Alpha will decide if you are safe or dangerous."

"Alpha?"

I start to leave, turning back once to look. The foreigners are following slowly, Gentleheart looking torn between eagerness and apprehension, his other half looking cheerful now that everything he cares about has been put to rights. "Come," I say again. Then I run.

Gentleheart quickens his pace, but he has a hard time keeping up. He is damaged, one of his legs is gone, he has a metal peg leg from the knee down. It hampers him in these caves; only his other half's nudging and hoisting helps him successfully navigate his way after me.

I make sure I reach the courtyard well before him and take off my mask, so that I can see his face when he emerges. The first glimpse of it in the sunlight only shows distress from the difficult passage - but then it transforms to awe and delight, and my heart soars just to see it. Gentleheart wanders through the greenery with his companion at his side, expressing affection for the hatchlings he passes and joy at the sight of my flockmates spiraling up into the sky, beautiful and free. Yes, yes, he loves this place. He means no harm to my home and my family. I was right to bring him here, this is where he belongs.

Of course Beautiful notices me first, where I am perched with Cloudjumper in a high niche. He bares his teeth a little, warning me gently as he remembers his other half's fear. _"I will not hurt your precious thing,"_ I assure him.

Gentleheart finally notices where Beautiful is glaring, and stumbles back in alarm at the sight of me. "Uh, um...uh, hi there."

Cloudjumper helps me to the ground. "You like it?"

"It's amazing... You're the dragon thief, aren't you? You steal dragons from- You _rescue_ dragons from the trappers, and you bring them here."

"Yes..." He won't betray us, will he?

"Wow..."

The longing admiration in his face is too genuine. He won't betray us.

We are distracted by Beautiful's snarling - he has had enough of my flockmates wanting to investigate him. He is more tolerant of me, however, freely letting me greet him and caress him and even get a closer look at his teeth, which I am delighted to discover can be easily retracted into his gums. "How did you manage to _find_ such a magnificent creature, much less befriend him?!"

"Uuhmmm, well, you know...I found him in the woods...he was shot down and...wounded..." He's squirming as guiltily as if he himself was the one who shot down this poor dragon and robbed him of his flight. The name 'Gentleheart' truly does suit him, with his sensitivity and empathy.

I, too, am grieved at the thought of maimed dragons. "This Snafflefang lost his leg to one of Drago Bludvist's iron traps..."

Gentleheart listens as I show him scar after scar, his face filled with pain and sympathy. There's even guilt in the set of his shoulders, as if he empathizes with the cruelty of the humans as well.

"And what of this? Did Drago or his trappers do _this_, too?" I growl, lifting Beautiful's red not-fin.

Gentleheart's laughter sounds painfully forced. "Oh...that's a...funny story, actually..." He gulps. "Crazy thing is..._I'm_ actually the one who...shot him down..."

I can't move, can't respond. Those terrible words are so at odds with Gentleheart's (the boy's name is _Gentleheart_...!) obvious shame and guilt, and with the innocent, endearing way Beautiful requests caresses from his other half. He loves this _human_ who _maimed_ him, who almost as good as _killed_ him, as his other half. The human's prattling can't even keep hold of its guilty tone, the boy's response to Beautiful's love gently covers their strange dark past with genuine pleasure. "It's okay, though; he got me back! Right, bud? You couldn't save _all_ of me, could you? You just _had_ to make it even. So: peg leg!"

I can't hold on to my anger and betrayal, they give way to awe. This is _love_ before my eyes, the purest kind of love that somehow grew out of violence and pain. It's blossomed into this image of two halves who yearn to be together, Beautiful reveling whole-heartedly in his half's attention as Gentleheart forgets me in his willingness to shower his half with affection.

For the wonderful life I live now, I lost my family. Cloudjumper lost his birthflock. Beautiful lost his independent flight, and Gentleheart lost his leg. Perhaps the two-halves bond has its price, as if it's a reward given to those willing to make such a sacrifice.

"...Where are you from, Gentleheart?" I was so sure he wasn't a Viking, but that was before I learned that he was so eager to shoot a dragon out of the sky.

"Hm? You mean me? My name is Hiccup, by the way."

I only dimly register the fact that I'd forgotten how human names work; he said _Hiccup_. My baby's name was Hiccup.

My baby...

"Hiccup?!" Long gone are the days when hiccups were allowed to take their chances in this cruel, dangerous world. No other hiccup would have been allowed to live, only Stoick the Vast would have dared to defy tradition.

My _husband_. Stoick. Stoick's snub nose, something of the lines in Stoick's face, auburn hair that might grace the child of two redheaded parents, those _eyes_, he's even- How long has it been, twenty years?! This...boy...could very easily be twenty years old...

"Whoa! Hey, are you okay?!"

He's holding me, my legs have gone so weak; Cloudjumper and Beautiful are pressing against me, voicing their concern. His face is so close. I reach for his face-

Sweet Freyja, that _scar_. On his chin. Where Cloudjumper scratched him that night, oh, Hiccup, _Hiccup_...!

"O-Okay, okay, um, just take it easy, here, why don't you sit down over here, and, um..."

Should it be so much of a shock that this human with the soul of a dragon would be the child of my own body? "Hiccup," I whisper.

"Hey," he croons back. "Hey, it's okay, we've got you- Um...I just realized I don't even know your name..."

"Valka," I whisper. Then I cringe, I shouldn't have told him that, I should have hid, surely he'll hate me now that he knows who I am and what I did to him and his father and our tribe.

He stares at me. "V...Valka? That...that was my... My mother was named Valka..."

Coincidence. Coincidence, I can claim. We just happened to have the same name, but I'm not your mother, child, I did not abandon you-

"My mother...was killed by a dragon." He sounds like he can't breathe. "No- Carried off. Not killed. Carried off by a four-winged...by..."

We stare at each other helplessly. "...Why didn't you come back?" he finally whispers.

With the last of my strength, I scramble to Half Of Me's back, and we flee.

o.o.o.o.o

For a while, I pace in circles as if I've gone mad. I want to _fly_, to scream my dismay to the endless skies, but Cloudjumper won't take me. He knows there is something wrong with me but he doesn't know what, I can't explain it to him, and he wants me to stay close to Alpha when I'm in this condition.

Stoick...Hiccup...Berk... Long-buried memories come flooding to the surface, my misery at living in a village where I would never belong, the pain and frustration of never being listened to, how much I loved and still love that bear of a man whose hands on me were nevertheless so gentle, the pain of Hiccup's birth and of weeping so many tears over him, wondering how long my poor, struggling child would continue to draw breath...

Hiccup. He's alive now, after all this time. Alive and _well_ and _vibrant_. Unusually thin, but tall like his father, and with such clear eyes and a strong heart. Seeing him now, my long ago fears seem silly. Of course he lived. Of course he _thrived_.

I can't bear to come near him, but I hide and watch him as he wanders throughout the Sanctuary, greeting and examining and playing with my flockmates, and offering himself to them in return. Eventually, Alpha takes note of his presence, and raises His head to examine and greet him. Gentleheart- Hiccup... He gives no greeting, he is an ignorant human despite having a dragon half, but he looks awed and delighted at the sight of our king. It's enough, and Alpha is pleased.

Then He turns to me. _**"He is yours."**_

My body seizes up with fear. Alpha knows that Hiccup is my son, the beloved child that I lost and longed for. His attention reveals my hiding place to Hiccup. _"Y...Yes."_

_**"Why are you frightened?"**_

_"...Shame. Abandoned my cub that I love."_

_**"...He will forgive you."**_

I weep, and Alpha withdraws, leaving me to the comfort of my other half.

By the time I've recovered, our flockmates have left to go eat. Cloudjumper and I follow, flying slowly toward the dragons swarming over the sea and cavorting across the ice in the distance. My other half and I have settled down with our own meal when Hiccup finds us.

Beautiful, the dragon whom his other half has named 'Toothless,' immediately bounds over to me, nuzzling me in affectionate greeting and barking at Cloudjumper, whom he views with more awed respect. Then he rushes away and twines himself around his other half, steals the fish I have no appetite for, and happily settles down to eat.

"...So I guess I should call you 'Mom,' huh." There is bitterness in Hiccup's expression, but also longing.

"I'm sorry, Hiccup," I whisper. "I didn't know... I was wrong."

"Mm." He settles down beside me, close but being careful not to let his shoulder touch mine. Neither of us looks at each other. "...This is quite a flock you've got here."

"They're wonderful."

"Guess I can understand why you didn't miss us at all."

"Oh, _Hiccup_!" I reach out for him then, my hand closing on his shoulder. He looks back at me. He doesn't move, but the quiet glare on his face makes me let go. "I...I _did_ miss you. You and your father, it was the only, only thing I truly missed about my old life. But I...I couldn't, Hiccup. I...didn't belong there, to that world of fear and hatred. I thought my family would be better off without me, the woman whose inability to kill a dragon nearly got _them_ killed instead."

We talk for a long time. By the end of it, Hiccup is in my arms. He'd started out by resting his head on my shoulder with a sigh like a surrender - he had shifted gradually, and now I'm tightly embracing him. His long legs are sprawled out, his shoulders bent awkwardly, he's so _big_ but at this moment, he is a child again, and I can hold him and he can be held the way it should have been long ago.

"...We're only doing this because no one's watching but dragons," he mumbles.

"Mm."

"...You should have been there to hold me when I was young enough to need it."

He still needs it. But of course he's also right. "Yes, dearest, yes."

There is a long pause. "_Mom_..." A sniffle and the falling drops on my armor are the only betrayal of his tears, but I don't bother to hide the sound of my own.

We are not left to weep for long. Toothless comes hurrying over, licking the tears from Hiccup's face in concern and eliciting a peal of exasperated laughter. When Hiccup straightens up and wipes his face and grins at me, I can't even tell he was crying. "Oh, hey, Mom, I should ask- Let me draw you a map, I wanna know how much you've seen of the places I haven't made it to yet."

Now it's all joy, as we talk eagerly of foreign lands and our adventures there. Toothless cheerfully destroys my map in the snow with a _"Half Of Me and His dam are happy now"_ message, having apparently learned from his other half that personal messages can be made with sight-marks as well as flock messages. Hiccup shows off his fire blade, giving Cloudjumper a protection-fright in the process. I show them where we can play in the air without flight, letting the upward gusts carry us completely. We fly together, I and my son and our other halves - and then Hiccup _leaps from his dragon's back and flies on his own_.

It's an incredible sight, unspoiled even by the clumsy landing. To see a _human_ with wings of his own, a human who might as well be a dragon... My heart sings for joy as I rush to him afterward, even as I'm brushing snow from him and making sure he truly wasn't hurt in the fall. My son has the soul of a dragon. My child has come back to me, and there is nothing to fear anymore.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I've been wanting to write this story for a long time, especially since I've seen several other "Valka's POV of meeting Hiccup" fics that never clicked for me. Yet whenever I thought about writing this fic, the problem always came right about the time Valka recognizes Hiccup by his scar. Although I don't particularly have a problem with how that scene played out in the movie, since I understand that they needed to be concise and go for dramatic effect, I really don't think it would have happened that way in real life or even in a written version of that event, as opposed to the film version. I also dislike a lot of Valka's dialogue in the following "Valka's Dragon Sanctuary" scene - the exposition is not presented well and makes her dialogue feel unnatural.

Once I decided to just go ahead and alter the parts that I felt could be improved or which I outright disliked, I was suddenly able to write this story like a house on fire. XD I scribbled most of it during meals, and would take too long between bites because the writing flow was so strong that I couldn't lift the pen away from the paper. ^^;

The part about giving Cloudjumper a scare is one of the deleted scenes I wish they'd left in the movie. It's hilarious; Hiccup is trying to show off, filling a cartridge with Cloud's saliva to see what sort of fireblade he can get out of it - he clicks the button, and Inferno GOES BERSERK. Hiccup's frantically trying to keep hold of it as it thrashes in his hands like an out-of-control fire hose, and I love that Cloudjumper's instant reaction is to protectively fling his wings over Valka and jerk back with this shocked expression on his face. XD (Toothless just kind of stares like, "What the heck are you doing _this_ time, you crazy boy?" XD)

I went from barely having any time to write for two months, to suddenly indulging my fresh explosion of HTTYD inspiration. ^^; I think my real life priorities are suffering as a result; ARGH, why is it so hard for me to do things in a well-balanced way?! It's like I'm either taking care of business in real life and being miserable because there's no time to write, or else writing my brains out and neglecting everything else. *facepalm*

Gosh...I want _so much_ to see HTTYD3, but at the same time I'm horrified by what Dean's hinted he has in store for my OTP. No matter how much I think about it, I honestly cannot think of a way for him to resolve the story the way he's been hinting that's both plausible and emotionally satisfying in general; and I _absolutely_ can't think of a way for him to resolve the story that will satisfy _me personally_. -.- Why can't you just let Hiccup &amp; Toothless be together forever, huh?! Or at least have the decency to kill them off together! Ragh! I don't care what happens to book-HiccTooth, since book-Tooth is a jerk and isn't much of a loss; but _movie-HiccTooth_, aaaahhhhh, my babiiiieeeesss! *cries* But at the same time... I mean, the incredible team who came up with those supremely fantastic first two movies surely _can't_ ruin the third one, right? Right...? Somehow they will be able to pull this off, or at least make it not-too-horrible? (I'm probably rambling about all this because I recently re-watched _Race to the Edge_ episode 13, and there was such horrible foreshadowing in it. DX DX *looking forward to RttE part 2~ I know it's coming~ but why can't I find a release date for it yet...?! X'D*)


	8. (Tooth part 3) Risk

Risk

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Young Toothless is captured by the Red Death. Tooth's POV; sequel to _Scaring Away Monsters_ and _Hunting For Trolls_.

o.o.o

We can't call our dam 'Mama' anymore because we are not hatchlings anymore and she's going away. We can hunt and feed ourselves now, and we are strong enough to fly and fly, so she's not trapped here in this place she hates, and she can go find her mate that she loves. Reckless and Stubborn will go with her because they like her and are scared to be alone.

I'm a little scared to be alone, too, but also excited. I won't be the runt anymore if I have no flock to call me Runt. I don't know if I should go with my dam or stay here or go somewhere away that's not where Dam is going.

We can hear the calling now. We couldn't hear it when we were babies, but I can hear it now, _"COME COME COME BRING ME BRING ME BRING ME,"_ faaaaar away but close enough to tug on me. I don't like it. I will not stay here. I don't think I will go away with Dam, but I won't stay here. I will go away somewhere else.

o.o.o.o.o

But I'm hungry, hungry, I search for food but the more I search the less there is, there is _nothing to eat_. I have to get closer and closer to the horrible calling because I'm looking, and now whenever I find something, crazy dragons swoop down and steal my prey and fly away with it.

Why are they _all_ crazy? Scared/frantic/desperate/hungry, but they smell like each other's flockmates, why is there a whole flock with crazy dragons in it who won't talk to me and steal my food-

Where am I?!

I was flying... I was flying and hunting on that island, he swooped down and grabbed my kill so I chased him, we were flying over water and my plates vibrated and my head hurt and I-

Where am I?! It's _dark_ and this air hurts to breathe, the CALLING fills up all inside my head and grips tight all the rest of me inside so I _can't move_, I want to fly fly fly away but instead my body won't listen to me, I am fly fly flying _there_, that place I don't want to go, the calling is _there_ it's holding me tight it won't let me go, get out get out GET OUT GET _OUT_ of me-!

Dark. It smells _bad_, like dead and rotting dragons, like FEAR FEAR unhappiness grief, like-

Where am I, where am I, where am I, I'm scared!

We are flying. My body is _flying_ toward the calling even though I don't want to fly. There is a fish in my mouth, I don't know why there's a fish in my mouth, I didn't catch it. Maybe.

This whole flock around me, this flock of dragons who aren't crazy but are really just scared scared sad scared unhappy _scared_, we are flying and flying, circling, dropping our food, the calling is _THERE_, She owns me, She is my queen who owns me even though I never pledged to Her, my self is Hers and my food is Hers and I know if I don't give Her this food right now then She will take my self instead...

As soon as I drop the food, Her calling attacks the dragon behind me, I can't fly very far but my wings are _mine_ again a little bit, I rush for a rock that I can hide behind so I can cry and cry. _"What's happening, what's happening, I don't like it, I don't like it, let me go, let me be free...!"_

A rock-eater comes to comfort me. She nuzzles me and lies beside me and I hide my face against her.

After a while, someone sniffs at my head, he smells like a nightwing, I look up and he is an adult nightwing with kind eyes. He is so calm that I feel a little better, I sit up and greet him. _"Hello. I am small and beaten and scared."_

_"Yes. All of us in this flock are small and beaten and scared."_

What? What?! That is not right, a flock is supposed to be a good safe home place, not a scary hurting place!

He licks me to mark me as his flockmate, I don't _want_ to be in this flock but I know I can't leave. She has caught me, and I can't get away from Her.

_"He's so little!"_ There is another nightwing, a younger one. He sniffs me all over and licks me. _"You are small and cute, I like you."_

_"I'm not a runt,"_ I tell them. That is very important. Both of these nightwings are bigger than me, but I don't _like_ being a runt, so they're not allowed to call me Runt.

_"You are a fledgling, yes?"_ the rock-eater says. _"You were with your mama just a few days ago, I can still smell her on you."_

_"Mama..."_ I don't have a mama anymore.

_"You have two male siblings, too,"_ Younger Nightwing says.

_"Did they get caught?"_ Older Nightwing asks. _"Your aeriemates? Did anyone else get caught, or only you?"_

_"Only me...only me, only me, I wish I had gone with Dam and Reckless and Stubborn, but I didn't and now I'm in this horrible dark scary smelly nest instead..."_

_"We will take care of you. We are all sad, but we are all sad _together_.__"_

_"Okay,"_ I say. I don't like it, but I can't escape, and if I have to be trapped then I like that I'm trapped together with nice people.

o.o.o.o.o

I'm so HUNGRY. _All_ of us are hungry, all of us are always hungry, hungry, _hungry_.

SHE is hungry too, SHE is why we are so hungry. We hunt and fish and hunt and fish, we even steal, we find other people's prey and steal it from them and bring it back to Her, but She never stops being hungry. She will always be hungry. For as long as She is hungry, we must feed Her, and it's so hard to find enough to eat ourselves.

_"Here, Little Nightwing."_

I don't like that my name is 'Little,' but I guess it's better than 'Runt.' And Not-Mama is feeding me so it's okay, she regurgitates fish for me so I can eat it.

_"I like you very much, Little Nightwing."_

_"I like that you gave me food, Not-Mama."_ She is a rock-eater and I'm a nightwing, she is not my mama, but she takes care of me like a mama does. I can call her Mama even though I'm not a hatchling anymore, because she's a _not_-mama.

Sometimes we steal from monsters because we can't find any people to steal from. I was so scared the first time we had to do it, fly _into_ a nest full of scary human-monsters, roaring their nothing-roars and waving their sharp blades and throwing their horrible _webs_ that catch my flockmates out of the sky and drag them down to the ground where they can be hurt...

But I am a nightwing, we only attack monsters at night, we hide in the darkness and snatch our prey and _flee_ so it's only our day-creature flockmates who can be seen and get caught.

I'm still sad, though, whenever I smell my flockmates' blood or hear their screams. They are not nightwings, but they are mine. I hate very much our queen and our nest, but me and my flockmates can be happy together if She would let us be, but she doesn't.

The stealing is over and She is fed; we're resting. I've been hungry for so long that I don't notice being hungry anymore, I'm just not-hungry.

Feather Snatcher pounces at me to play. I mock-snarl and bat at him with my paws. He's only playing but he's still _stronger_ than me, I have to work very hard to play, but for him it's easy.

_"Submit to me~"_ he says with his teeth on my neck.

_"I don't want to!"_

_"Cute youngling that I like..."_ He licks me, and I don't like that I escaped by being cute instead of being strong. I turn away from him and sulk. _"Aww, Little Nightwing! Don't be mad!"_

_"I am strong and good and smart!"_

_"Smart little one~"_

I go to find Wanderer so he will tell me a story. He is an elder because he's so wise, his name is Wanderer because he used to fly faaaaaar far far far before he got caught by _Her_, he met lots of people and did lots of interesting things. _"Wanderer!"_ I pounce on his back to catch his attention, and he turns his head to coo at me. _"Tell me a story!"_

_"I will tell you a good story."_

_"Tell me a story about flying, and people who are free!"_

_"I will tell a story about a dog who ran away from the monsters who hurt him and joined a wolf pack."_

We gather around and listen, Wanderer had a friend one time who was a dog instead of a dragon, his friend was owned and hurt by human monsters like we are owned and hurt by _Her_. But then Wanderer's friend escaped, and he-

CALLING.

I am flying, I don't know why I'm flying, I'm surprised and I'm mad because I know now, _She_ interrupted us, _She_ pulled us away from the story and is making us fly and hunt and steal, I hate Her I hate Her I hate Her...!

There is not enough prey in that forest, so we who can't catch anything have to go find a human nest to steal from. I hate stealing from humans. They throw big rocks at us to knock us out of the air, their horrible webs snatch us out of the air too, how do they even _make_ webs anyway, the human webs don't even smell like-

I see it. I almost fall, I'm so surprised; I saw a _thing_, a wood-and-metal thing that _threw a rock_. It _threw_ the rock, and the rock hit that spinetail and knocked him down to the ground. Humans are swarming over him, he is screaming he will die, but I'm looking at this horrible rock-throwing wood-and-metal thing, maybe if I shoot it they can't throw rocks at us anymore-

My fire is weak, but my aim is good and I hit it. The wood parts catch on fire, the humans scream and scramble like insects, I'm proud of myself.

_"What are you DOING?!"_ Rainbow Chaser slams into me, she is angry angry angry. _"Grab food, fly away! Grab food, fly away! WHY ARE YOU SHOOTING A DEAD THING, YOU STUPID HATCHLING?!"_

_"I'm not stupid! And I'm not a hatchling! The dead thing is dead but it still throws rocks at us, I-"_

_"FLY."_ Wanderer is not angry for real but he is protection-angry, he zooms at us and herds us away, we must fly fly fly back to Her. I didn't get any prey. I must catch a big fish so I have something to feed Her so She won't eat me instead.

Feather Snatcher swoops up to join us, he is not angry. _"Little One, you killed a rock thrower?"_

_"He can't kill it, it's already dead,"_ Rainbow Chaser snorts.

Why didn't anyone _see_?! Why doesn't anyone _understand_?! _"It was dead, but it was still dangerous!"_ I try to explain. _"I shot it and killed the not-dead thing so it's dead for real, it can't throw rocks anymore and hurt us."_

_"Go catch a fish, Risk,"_ Wanderer orders me. He is confused and unhappy and hopeful all at the same time, but he knows that the most important thing is for me to feed Her, so I must catch a big fish right now.

When we get back to the nest, even after I have fed Her and can rest, Rainbow Chaser doesn't let me rest. She nips me and scares me and chases me until I flee back into the sky, and she rushes after me and still chases me. _"Fly fast, Hatchling! Stretch your wings!"_

_"I'm not a hatchling!"_

But she just ignores me and bites me again, I have to fly. She chases me and makes me wheel and swoop and race until I am so tired I will fall out of the sky. _"Mean Thing, I'm tired tired tired, let me rest-!"_

_"If you will play with monsters,"_ she snarls, _"you must learn to fly. FLY, Hatchling, so that the monsters will never catch you!"_

She does it every day, when I want to sleep. She chases me out of the nest and through the air and scares me and screams at me, makes me fly and dodge and hide in the shadows so that I think I will die. Even when I flip onto my back to surrender to her, maybe she'll stop chasing me if I tell her she is strong and dominant, she bites my stomach _hard_, her teeth are retracted but it still _hurts_, and she makes me fly again. I hate her.

I ask my flockmates for protection. Not-Mama is distressed for me, but she still lets Mean Thing drag me away from her. Wanderer licks me to comfort me, but says I must let Mean Thing make me strong. Feather Snatcher feels sorry for me, but all he does is come _with_ us and let Mean Thing chase him, too.

_"Have you fled from monsters before?"_ he asks. _"That's why you know how to do it now?"_

Mean Thing is grief-angry. _"They hunted us and nearly killed us, me and my mate that I like. I fled and Friend fled, and we escaped the monsters but we separated and I was caught by _Her_ and now my friend/mate that I like, I will never see him again we will never have babies again STOLEN hurt hunted lost...!"_ Feather Snatcher comforts her, she is not paying attention to me, so I escape.

o.o.o.o.o

I am very fast and strong and good! I race with the fireskins and I _beat_ them, even when I laugh and taunt them and they chase me, they can't catch me. _"Wanderer!"_ I call to him, _"I am very fast and strong and good! Praise me!"_

_"You are very fast and strong,"_ he agrees. _"I will praise Rainbow Chaser for making you strong."_

_"NO SHE'S MEAN I HATE HER."_ I fly _away_ because I don't like it, he's wrong!

I am used to stealing from humans now. I am a nightwing, we are smart and stealthy, we hide in the shadows and steal things so the humans don't even see us, but I still want to kill rock-throwers. A rock-thrower hit Not-Mama last time and took her away from me; I HATE rock-throwers and I will kill all of them, but I can't let Mean Thing see me or she will bite me.

Feather Snatcher doesn't bite me. He likes killing rock-throwers, too. _"That one will hit Three Claws,"_ I say.

_"How do you know?"_ Feather Snatcher asks, and I don't know how to say it but I _know_, the rock-thrower's not-eyes are looking at Three Claws, and they hit whatever they look at. The humans grab at their rock-thrower, and it throws its rock and hits Three Claws. _"HOW DID YOU KNOW?!"_ Feather Snatcher is amazed. I am very proud of myself.

_"We have to kill rock-throwers so they don't kill us."_

_"Yes!"_

Me and Feather Snatcher already have our food but we don't flee, we fly in the darkness and shoot rock-throwers, we save Dead Eye and we save Root and we save-

Feather Snatcher screams. I scream too because I'm so surprised, something hit Feather Snatcher and now there's _blood_.

I scream and scream, then Mean Thing streaks up to me and bites me so I _flee_.

I flee and flee, but then I realize I don't have my prey anymore. I have to go back and get food to give to _Her_, but where is Feather Snatcher, Feather Snatcher is hurt I'm alone alone I have to go back have to find them, have to-

My breedmates are all gathered together on an island. Mean Thing is pacing around and around and around, wailing and howling. Feather Snatcher is lying very still. Wanderer is licking the blood off of him and crooning with grief. I don't know why he is licking, because he can't fix Feather Snatcher's wounds, because Feather Snatcher is dead.

I'm whimpering and moaning. _"Why is he dead?! Why is he dead?! Why is he-?!"_

Mean Thing tears into me, snarling, I'm frightened and hurt but I'm too ashamed and horrified and sad to fight back, even when she hurts me. She's biting me and battering me with her paws, I'm whimpering whimpering _"Sorry sorry sorry I'm bad horrible bad,"_ then she howls again and flies away.

I crawl over to Wanderer on my belly, still crying. He is crying, too. _"What happened?"_ I whimper. _"Why is everything so horrible?"_

_"Feather Snatcher is dead...Feather Snatcher my friend/breedmate/flockmate is dead, what will I do, what will I do, I am weak and I cannot keep my flockmates safe, my flockmates will die and die and die until none of us are left..."_

I'm terrified. I howl, and I curl up tight into Wanderer so he will comfort me. He doesn't comfort me, but he doesn't move either, he lets me curl into him until I fall asleep.

o.o.o.o.o

It's my fault. I deserve to be named Risk, because it's my fault that Feather Snatcher is dead and Wanderer is hurt. Wanderer got hurt trying to help Feather Snatcher escape, now he flies and walks so sloooow, there is something wrong with him, it's my fault.

He's an elder and we love him, so we bring him food for his tribute and also for himself. I always bring him food because it's my fault that he's hurt.

But it doesn't matter. Even when he has food, Wanderer is hurt and slow, and he can't fly away from Her jaws fast enough. She swallows the food and She swallows him too, he screams and now he's gone, _She's_ gone too but She only sank down into the fire and I know She's still there waiting and hungry and waiting and _hungry_, but Wanderer is gone for real he's lost lost lost like Feather Snatcher and I will never see him again. Dead. Everyone I like and love is going away and being dead; I'm all alone.

Our whole flock grieves for Wanderer our kind elder. I try to curl up with flockmates to comfort me, but they are frightened of me because I do strange bad things and make our good flockmates dead. Only Rainbow Chaser is not scared of me, but she is angry. When I ask her for comfort, she subdues me very much before she will comfort me.

She doesn't chase me to make me strong anymore. She seethes and growls, and when we attack human nests, she attacks humans instead of just stealing their food. She shoots them and kills them, then she cries because they are gone but Wanderer and Feather Snatcher and her mate are still not coming back to her. We lose so many flockmates, and none of them will come back to us; someday we will be lost, too.

She misses her mate. She goes into a mating haze, and her body wants to mate but her _heart_ misses her friend/mate, too; she wants babies but she also wants _him_.

I think that's why she turns away from the fights with our flockmates. She will not fight us to calm her body, instead she fights HER. Rainbow Chaser has gone crazy with grief, and she lets her mating haze make her more crazy, she screams grief-fury and _flies_ at our monster queen and rips at one of Her eyes, we cheer and scream our glee. But Rainbow Chaser only attacked Her because she's crazy, and the craziness makes her careless, and she lets Queen eat her. She is biting and tearing at Queen's tongue even as Queen swallows her. Her last shriek isn't fear; it's vengeance. She dies with the taste of Queen's blood in her mouth.

Rainbow Chaser is happy now because she's dead, but I'm sad sad sad sad sad. I have no more breedmates left in this horrible flock. I am _Alone_.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: "Not-Mama" is Meatlug.

I've been working on this story for a long time, it's actually what I'd originally meant to write when I started _Scaring Away Monsters_. But the material (both before and after Tooth's capture) got so long that I realized I'd have to break it up into installments. If I ever finish all of these "Tooth's backstory" fics (which possibly might include all of HTTYD1 from Tooth's POV), I'll re-label them as a multi-chapter. If not, I guess they'll just stay a series of related one-shots.

Who else is excited for _The Serpent's Heir_ coming out in April?! 8D 8D I have high hopes for that series, since Dean is supposed to be more closely involved with it than he is with any of the other non-feature-length-movie HTTYD canon.

I've found that author's notes are the best way to communicate with the highest number of readers, haha...  
The current poll on my FFN profile is about what fic I should focus on next, though I'm thinking about changing it back to the HiccStrid one.  
Story requests, preferably holiday-related ones, are open through the end of December (I'm not committing - I'll just write as many of the most interesting ones as I have time for).  
I recently started posting a new species swap AU called _To Put It In Perspective_, where Toothless is the human narrator and Hiccup is a dragon~ (the rough draft for the HTTYD1 arc is complete). Also, stay tuned for a couple more _Hybrid_ installments (I recently finished one, and I'd totally forgotten about another one that's been finished for a long time), though I'm not sure whether to alternate those with TPIIP chapters or wait 'til I've finished posting the whole HTTYD1 arc.


	9. Snowball Fight

Snowball Fight  
(rough draft)  
A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

_Suggested by erifetim for Christmas 2015_

Summary: Toothless and the dragons learn how to have a snowball fight. Tooth's POV.

A/N: "Bravado" is Snotlout's dragon name. :p  
This takes place at some point after HTTYD1.

o.o.o

Our troop has been training all day, we dragons are happy and our humans are tired and cold but happy. We will go to our aeries and rest and share warmth and eat and sleep.

WHUMP!

Something happened, I don't know what!

No, I know what happened, we were walking and Half Of Me was chittering chittering in that way I like because it says _"I'm here I'm here I'm close to You,"_ but then He STOPPED because the 'whump' stopped Him, He didn't stop Himself!

He is rubbing snow off His face. Why is there so much snow on His face?

Our human troopmates are making their human _"I am amused!"_ noises. Bravado is gleeful, I think he _did something_, I don't know what.

"Ha ha, very funny, Snotlout."

Whump!

WHAT HAPPENED?

Snow. There is _more snow_ on Half Of Me, the littermates threw it, they are making their human laughter, they threw it at Half Of Me and they think it's funny- But Half Of Me is annoyed, so it's NOT funny!

I will punish them, but I'm still deciding how to punish them and I'm distracted because Wanted is scooping snow into her forepaws and if she throws it at Half Of Me I will punish her too even though she is my half's female-

She throws it at the littermates. They squawk in surprise and Bravado laughs at them, but he squawks too when Wanted throws more snow at him.

"SNOWBALL FIIIIIGHT!"

What is happening?! Our humans are rushing rushing fighting eager, Half Of Me isn't annoyed now, He will fight just like everyone else, but who are we fighting?! Each other?! Why are we fighting?!

Humans are hiding behind dragons, we are shields? Snow snow snow snow, flying _sideways_ instead of down from the sky-

Oh. Ohhhhhhhh, oh, oh oh oh oh, it's a GAME. They are _playing_ teasing roaring happy, but instead of pouncing and swatting and biting, they are throwing snow instead. Silly humans. But okay, I am half human now, I will play this silly human way.

It's boring being a shield, I want to _play_. I try to scoop snow into my forepaws, but it doesn't work. I am half human and will play like a human, but I can't throw snow like a human. I will throw snow like a dragon. I will put snow on my and Half Of Me's not-enemies, _the most_ snow so we will win and they must submit-

OOH, I see it, I see it! LOTS of snow, up there on that human aerie, I will jump up there and push it down onto Bravado!

"Whoa, Toothless-!"

"What's he-?"

"GAAAAAHHHH, cold cold cold get it off!"

Ha ha ha ha ha, I win~

Troopmate Fireskin is _delighted_. He knows how to play now. He thinks it's funny that his partner got buried, they are not _together_ like me and Half Of Me are together, so even though Fireskin's partner lost, Fireskin will still play. He looks for a target.

HALF OF ME IS UNDEFENDED, I rush and shield Him, HAH, you cannot target my Half Of Me and bury Him in snow!

Our humans shriek and laugh when we dragons understand the game and stop being shields and play too. Rush rush rush, snow snow snow, we dragons _love_ this game but our humans are so silly and fragile, they are very quick to get too cold and wet and shivering. We take them home, Half Of Me removes His wet dead coverings and covers Himself with dry ones instead. We curl together by the fire and He eats meat water that is hot and will make Him warmer inside. He falls asleep. _"I love You, Half Of Me. I will keep You warm and safe."_

Dad comes and picks up our small Half Of Me in his forelegs and carries Him up to His bed and lays Him in it. He caresses Half Of Me and I lick Him, we both love our precious thing so much.

But now He is asleep and safe and warm, I am too happy and excited to sleep, I will go play with my dragon troopmates now!

They want to play too, we all meet each other outside the nest where there is _lots_ of snow. We know how to play this human snow game, and now we can use all our strength and speed and endurance. We push and bury and swipe with our tails! Sometimes Fireskin is stupid and bursts into flame and melts the snow; he _loses_! Friend and Two-head get tired and too cold, they lose too. I am not tired, but I'm a little cold and I'm too _small_! Nurture wins. Her tail is not good for sweeping snow, but she has the most fat to keep her warm and she's short-small instead of long-small like I am, so she is harder to hit and bury.

_"I win this human snow game~!"_

We don't know how to submit to her when it's snow instead of tussling. Finally she just nuzzles marks onto us to prove she won. Then we go back to our aeries, because _now_ we're tired and cold and happy.

Half Of Me is still asleep. I lick His sweet cold skin and then go to my bed so I can heat it and sleep on it.

That silly but fun good snow game... Tomorrow we will play it again, and this time me and Half Of Me will _win_.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: It ended up pretty different than the details of erifetim's suggestion, but the basic idea of Toothless getting involved in a snowball fight is the same. :)

I'd hoped to be able to do a lot more than just this one vignette for the holiday season, but my muse has been so obsessed with _Carried Off_ whenever I get a chance to write, I probably won't be able to finish anything else in time...

In any case, Happy Holidays, everyone! Hope you have a good one! :D


	10. (Tooth part 4) Alone

Alone

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Toothless, while still under the Red Death's control, keeps noticing a certain small human boy, and finds him mildly interesting. Pre-HTTYD1 (mostly); Tooth's POV; sequel to _Risk_ and the other "Tooth's backstory" fics.

o.o.o

I am alone. My name is Risk, no one will let their hearts get close to mine because I do strange and scary things, but it's okay. No one loves me, so if I get hurt and die, no one will grieve for me. Not-Mama that I like and my breedmates that I like are all gone, so I'm allowed to do risky things now because the only one left to be hurt is me.

I don't steal food. I attack humans and their dead hurting things, this is a risky but good thing I do. If my flockmates are caught in human webs, I shoot at the humans, and sometimes my flockmates can get free and get safe into the sky again. If I shoot rock-throwers, they can't throw rocks at my flockmates and ground them. If I shoot the dead wood things that trap the sheep and the yaks, then the prey is terrified and run loose where their humans can't protect them, and my flockmates can catch them.

I do these risky good things for my flockmates, and a fireskin named Defiance catches prey for both me and him, so that I will have something to give Queen. I like Defiance. We are not friends because he thinks fireskins are better than nightwings, but he is one of the only only only ones who insults Queen and then flees so fast she can't catch him. I like that, and he likes that I shoot human dead things and make it easier for my flockmates to catch prey.

o.o.o.o.o

I don't like being out in the day, but humans are day-creatures. There is no stealing now, my flockmates are resting, but I want to watch the monsters when they are awake and not fighting us, and see if maybe I can find more weaknesses to attack when we steal again.

I am a night-creature, they will see me very much if I fly. I must sneak on the ground, I will come close to the human nest and hide and watch.

There is a human female youngling, I can hear her roaring far away. I don't even need to sneak, I do anyway so I'll be safe, but she is making so much noise and frightening timid animals away. She is attacking a tree with her blade that she throws and throws and throws, she is trying to kill the tree. She can't because it's very big and she is too small, but she's trying, and she's hurting it. Wood is splintered all over it where her blade bites.

A big male youngling comes, and I can tell right away that he is courting her. She rejects him but he keeps courting anyway, she gets more and more angry and she will throw her blade at him next. She doesn't throw it, but she suddenly charges at him roaring, and he flees. He comes back, and she hurts him and this time he flees for good. This female is a very strong and a little scary youngling. I think maybe I should kill her so she won't hurt us and kill us when she's older.

I open my mouth to shoot, but then a small male human youngling comes. I am young and was shooting earlier so I don't have enough fire left for both of them, so I keep hiding. But maybe I don't need to shoot him, he is so little and fragile that I can kill him with just claws and teeth...

Is he courting her? I can't tell at first, he's so _meek_ and of course a strong female like her wouldn't want a weak male like him to sire her offspring. Yes, she is rejecting him like she rejected the other male even though he was stronger.

The little male wanders away. He passes close to my hiding place and...I...recognize this scent. I know this human youngling. He was fishing with his sire and hunted a bear and failed at both of them, I think that is why he's so weak, because he's very bad at catching food.

I follow him, I want to see if he will hunt a too much strong prey again, but he doesn't. He just crouches down and scratches wood and charcoal against a bundle of not-leaves and makes marks that don't say anything, until I get bored and go away.

Human nest. I came to watch them and look for vulnerabilities.

Humans are not very scary during the daytime, even though they are still confusing. They herd their sheep and yaks around, and build their aeries.

They are not happy. I can see it more now when they're not fighting. Their bodies are tired, their steps are slow, their voices are dull or sharp. ...I think because we always steal their food and destroy their aeries.

No no no they are monsters _bad_, they hurt us, I am looking for VULNERABILITIES. How we can hurt them more than they hurt us.

...So much hurting. Us hurting and _them_ hurting too, they wouldn't hurt if we didn't steal and steal and steal their food, we wouldn't be hurt if we didn't have to steal and steal and steal and steal, everything is _Her fault_ I _hate Her_ why why why do I have to be in Her horrible flock, She is a BAD QUEEN! How do I get a good queen?! How?!

I am too upset to keep hiding and watching, so I fly away.

o.o.o.o.o

I shouldn't have gone to stalk the humans. I don't have enough time to rest, and now it's night and we're stealing _again_. This human nest is full of all adult females and many young females and only a few male cubs. It's a strange nest, every time we come here I'm always confused that there are almost no males, but I don't have time to wonder about it because we must steal food and I must shoot rock-throwers and I hope that Defiance will steal food for my share and won't forget.

o.o.o.o.o

Tired. So tired, raiding raiding again with no rest, I don't want to fly back, I will...I will fly back and feed Her later, when Her calling becomes too strong and I must obey even if my wings fail and I fall into the sea.

But now I am hiding and resting, close to this nest that we just stole from. It's the closest human nest to us, the one we attack the most. These humans are the fiercest and have the least food, but sometimes we can get lots of food anyway, because...

I don't know why because, but I think maybe because of one youngling, the little one I recognize. Every time we see him, we escape with more food, and more dragons survive. I don't know if I should like him or not, because he hates us and is afraid of us, he never _tries_ to help us. But he's so bad bad bad _bad_ at hunting food but also bad at protecting food, too, that he helps us anyway even though he doesn't want to. I think I do like him a little bit.

I liked him before, too, when I didn't know he was a monster... I still remember how soft he was, how he fit against my body and was nice to taste and snuggle with. I...remember...before I knew he's a monster, I wished he was my clutchmate. I remember saving him even after I found out he's a monster, I don't know why I did that. He is so unhappy like me, he is Alone like me...

I know he's Alone because I'm watching him, he is the most interesting thing to look at as I rest. He is scolded for letting us have so much food, and then shut up in his aerie like a misbehaving hatchling, but soon he comes out of it again and wanders into the trees and I don't see him for a long time. I fall asleep.

When I wake up, it's very late, the sun is very bright and hot on my scales, but I can still ignore Her calling if I watch Interesting Thing to distract me. His flockmates do not greet him or show him affection. Some of them shy away from him as he wanders; some of his agemates pounce on him and try to dominate him until he escapes. He sees his target female working on an aerie and he pauses, I wonder if he will try to court her again, but no, he continues on without trying. He is too disheartened, his body is saying that he is still ashamed for losing food to us.

An adult male limps out of an aerie and calls to him, and Interesting Thing goes with him into that aerie and I don't see him again. HER calling pulls and pulls and pulls at me, I can't resist it anymore, so I get up and fly to Her.

o.o.o.o.o

I named him Not-Clutchmate, because I wish we hatched out of the same clutch of eggs together instead of stupid Reckless and Stubborn that I didn't like at all. I didn't like for them to be my clutchmates, but I want for Not-Clutchmate to be with me-who-was if he was a nightwing instead of a monster. I know we would do things together and help each other and keep each other happy and warm and safe, if we hatched together and were babies together in the same flock, then we would be friends.

But he's _not_ a nightwing, he's a horrible human monster instead of a good dragon, so I hate him even though I wish he was my clutchmate. I like to watch him during stealings, after I kill rock-throwers while I wait for Defiance to bring my share.

Not-Clutchmate is like me. He is an alone sad runt (I am a runt...I said no no no but I can't be something I'm not, I am a runt just like my dam said, I'm _too small_ to be a good nightwing...), but also he is _different_. He is a _risk_ to them just like I'm a risk to my flock, his packmates are scared of him because they know he can hurt them even though he doesn't want to, he can hurt them just because he is too much different. That is why they hurt him, because they are scared of him.

He is supposed to be in that aerie, I think. When he comes out of it, his body says _"I am sneaking,"_ so I know he is doing something he's not supposed to do. He is too weak to fight, so he must stay with the cubs and the others who can't fight, so he'll be safe with them while my flock attacks. But he's not being safe, he's sneaking, and a two-head sees him and sprays gas at him and I stand up and spread my wings, but an adult female human throws herself over Not-Clutchmate so the two-head hurts her and not him. The two-head opens his gas-mouth to spray again, but then the big scary human queen attacks him and they fight.

My two-head flockmate will die. I'm not supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be hiding away from the human nest like Wanderer and Rainbow Chaser said, we nightwings should steal food and _flee_; but I stayed here too close to hide and watched Not-Clutchmate instead, and now my flockmate is in danger, I really am Risk, I am a bad dragon, I hurt the people I'm supposed to take care of...

I shoot, but the human queen sees my light and lunges behind an aerie where my fire can't reach him. The two-head flees flees flees, _no one_ but fireskins are ever brave enough to fight this human queen on purpose, because he's so strong and scary. I hurry to different shadows so the human queen can't see me, he looks for me but he doesn't see me and then he runs to Not-Clutchmate and the injured female.

"Dad, I-"

"WHAT HAPPENED?"

"Sh-She jumped in front of me, I-"

"I TOLD YOU TO STAY INSIDE. _THIS_ IS WHY I TOLD YOU TO STAY INSIDE, WHY CAN'T YOU EVER-?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Dad, I, let me, I didn't-"

Human screams burst from an aerie.

"GET HER TO SAFETY!" The human queen stops roaring at his Risk flockling and runs to help his other flocklings instead.

Not-Clutchmate is making strange grieving sounds together with the female's pain sounds, I don't know why he doesn't lick her to clean and soothe her injuries. He pulls at her, and together they stagger into an aerie and I can't see them anymore.

Defiance lands beside me with two sheep, one for him and one for me. He is happy because I was so quick to kill all the rock-throwers, he stole these sheep from right next to one that was broken. He has a cut in his hide from a human blade. I lick it so it stops bleeding, and then we fly away together.

I'm not happy like he is. I feel sick. My body is not sick, but my heart feels sick like I ate something rotten. I don't like...everything. _Everything_. I want something better. I want to be happy. I want something _better_.

o.o.o.o.o

Screaming running fighting flying shooting dying. I know it's happening but I don't feel it. My body is flying around but I think my heart is asleep. I kill a rock-thrower. No matter how many I kill, more and more and more come and keep hurting us. I think-

What is that noi-?!

OOOWWW!

I scream, I want to fly somewhere safe and see why I'm hurting, but I _can't fly_, can't move panic falling panic panic PANIC, _ow_ hitting hurting branches falling, I'm _grounded_, I'm _grounded_, I can't move and I'm _grounded_, my wings my tail trapped hurting I'm going to die, I can't get back to the sky I'm going to die, I'm going to die I'm going to die just like my flockmates that were pulled to the ground by humans, they caught me, there's none here but they will come soon they will track me and kill me I'm going to die...!

No matter how much I struggle, I can't get free. I am _bound_. I am _trapped_. I cry, and I rage and shriek and snarl, but I am Alone and no one will save me and soon I will die. I'm so hungry. My tail hurts, and my scales where I hit that tree. It _hurts_.

My flockmates are flying away now, taking their tribute back to Her. I know Defiance caught prey for me but I'm not there to take it from him, he will wonder where I am. He will take my share with him and feed Her because I am gone. He will think I'm dead, because I couldn't go back with them. They all think I'm dead. Lost lost lost, I am hurting and hungry and I will die, I hate this, I'm so sad scared angry _sad_, scared, I will die.

I thought I wanted to be dead, but I don't. I don't want to die.

o.o.o.o.o

The sun rises. It hurts my eyes, I should be safe home sleep right now, but I'm not. Caught, grounded, exposed, helpless..._waiting_.

When will human monsters come to kill me?! They caught me, now they will come and kill me, but they are not coming! I don't like this, I don't like _waiting_ and being _scared_, and being hungry, I can't even hunt and catch food because I can't move and I'm trapped. I hate this! I hate humans!

o.o.o.o.o

I wake up, I _SMELL THEM_.

...Him. Only one, only half-grown.

...Not-Clutchmate. He _hunted_ me?!

Except that is not his name anymore, now his name is Scary because he has a blade in his paws and he's scared but he's a monster and an enemy and he will use it to kill me. I can't protect myself, my belly is exposed, he will kill me.

He's Scary but he's scared, too, a tiny bit angry but very so much scared. He mumbles and squawks at me, he raises his blade high, he will bite deep into my heart.

If I am dead, She can't hurt me anymore.

I will be very sad scared angry to be dead, but maybe it's okay because She won't hurt me anymore. Scary will kill me. It's okay.

...Why is he not killing me? Stupid monster, he's so so so so SO SO bad at hunting that he can't kill his prey even when it's _very much helpless right in front of him_...

He hisses at me, but I don't know what he's saying.

No- Not hissing. It sounds like hissing but it is not. It is a human sound-

_Loose_. Looser, the horrible not-vines are looser. I open my eyes. I know what that sound is now. He is eating the not-vines instead of me, he is using his blade to bite the things that are holding me down, when he bites through them all I will be _free_.

This human is the VERY SO SO SO SO MUCH _STUPID_ CREATURE I EVER SAW _EVER_, IT'S SO STUPID IT EATS NOT-FOOD INSTEAD OF PREY. WHY IS A THING THIS STUPID STILL ALIVE? HOW IS IT STILL ALIVE?!

This is a good thing, I'm glad it's stupid, She will keep hurting me but it's okay because I _will not die_, I will LIVE.

Free. I POUNCE!

He is tiny and terrified and fragile under my paw, he will be so easy to kill. He was so stupid to not kill me.

...He has lots of little speckles on his face. I have never been so very close to a human before when I wasn't trying to fight or escape, I can _look_ at it.

Speckles and green eyes, living fur on his head that looks very soft, softer than the dead fur of the covering that I can feel a tiny bit beneath my paw. I can feel his heartbeat more than the fur, so quick because of fear, like a bird's. He's as bony and meatless as a bird. He's like a bird that can't fly. He will never fly. He's a monster and grounded and very much scared and he didn't kill me even though he could have.

Why did he not kill me?

...What are those speckles for? Are they for camouflage? Or attracting mates? Or telling predators that he tastes bad? I don't know. Do other humans have speckles, too? I don't remember! I never got to look at one like this before...

His little heartbeat slows down. Not a lot, just a tiny bit. He thinks maybe I will not kill him. He thinks maybe I am stupid like he is.

I AM NOT STUPID. I'm not stupid, but I won't kill him because...because I don't feel like it. Because he's too small.

Because he didn't kill me. He could have, but he didn't; I can kill him now, but do I have to? What will happen if I don't?

He can't hurt me. Now that I am free, he is too weak to hurt me with his tiny meatless limbs and soft useless claws and flat useless teeth. If I let him go, he can't hurt me, but I don't want him to try, either, because he's little but he's still scary when he tries to kill things. _"STAY AWAY FROM ME!"_ Then I flee.

Except I can't very much.

There is something _wrong_, I'm free but my _tail won't work_, it hurts, I can't fly straight, too close to that rock _ow_, what happened to me, what happened to me?!

I fall.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: "Defiance" is Hookfang.

This was originally going to be where this little series ended, but now I might just keep going with the rest of HTTYD1 if I have time...


	11. The One I'd Catch

The One I'd Catch  
(rough draft)  
A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

_For my dear friend Anna_

Summary: Cloudjumper struggles with the changes in his relationship with Valka now that she has been reunited with her son.

o.o.o

She is supposed to be the other half of my heart, but sometimes now She feels like a _stranger_.

My half of me. My most precious thing that I love. She changed my name and it _hurts_.

For so long, She spoke to me as Her Most Beloved. Her whole heart belonged to me, Her eyes were only for me, She would do anything for me. Just as I for Her, my treasure.

But I don't have all Her love anymore. Her eyes cherish someone else. If my wings were to fail, _I don't know if She would catch me_.

"I really shouldn't waste paper like this..."

"Watching you with all those notebooks and pencils of yours, sometimes I wonder how I managed to get by for twenty years without paper."

"Ha ha."

"I wasn't being sarcastic, love." She caresses him and nuzzles him, touches Her mouth to his head which humans do to say _"Affection."_ He is our flock consort who helps Alpha take care of us, but She says to him, _"I will protect you."_ He is an adult and a leader, but She says to him, _"You are my little child that I nurture."_ I'm hungry, but She is eating and never offered me any. She has forgotten me. I am alone. My heart is breaking.

"Hey...Mom, does Cloud look a little...down, to you?"

Finally She sees me. Immediately She is sorry, but I know it's not enough. "Ohhh, Cloudjumper, dearest!" She comes to me and caresses me and reassures me and _talks right_. _"Why are you sad?!"_

_"You don't love me anymore."_

_"Not true not true not true, Half Of Me!"_ She begs for forgiveness.

I don't accept it, because I know She doesn't even know what She's asking forgiveness for. She doesn't even realize how much She's hurting me. _"Not..."_ She's not Half Of Me anymore, but it hurts too much to say that. _"I am not Your Most Beloved."_

Now She knows. Grief-water starts to well out of Her eyes. _"My love my love my love."_ She reassures me, but She's sad now because She knows. _"You are my dearest one. You are...you are not my one-and-only anymore..."_ I start to cry. _"...but you are my dearest one. You are the one I love __**most**__!"_

_"If my wings failed, would You catch me?!"_

_"Y...Yes, dearest. It would be hard, but I would do it."_

I cry some more. We are two halves, it's not supposed to be _hard_.

_"Half Of Me, forgive me, I am human, forgive me-!"_

I take flight, _without Her_, because I can't bear it anymore. Somehow I made myself two halves with a monster. For so long She was not a monster and She was a good person who loved me, but now _I don't know who She is_. My _other half_, how can this be?!

I grieve alone, far away from the nest, for a long time. Finally Alpha and Consort come to me. Half Of Me is with them, but I reject Her, I reject Consort. They are monsters who don't know how to love. Only Alpha is allowed to approach.

He is annoyed. _"Stop that. Come home. You're hurting your other half."_

_"That scary hurting thing is not my other half."_

He screams, shocked and horrified and hurting.

_"She is a HUMAN!"_

_"So what?!"_

I feel like I just fell out of the sky. _"...She is...human! How can she be half of me?!"_

_"BECAUSE YOU LOVE HER LIKE YOUR OWN SELF AND SHE LOVES YOU LIKE HER OWN SELF AND YOU ARE TWO-WHO-ARE-ONE. TWO HALVES."_

...He knows this. Because He has a human other half, too.

Consort is approaching me, reaching for me, coaxing me, but he is _human_ so I can't bear his touch or his proximity. I snarl at him. He leaps back and looks at me like I hurt his feelings. _She_ is shouting at me, protective of her precious thing her _child_-that-is-not-a-child, but I ignore her because she has hurt me too much.

...Consort and Alpha, together. Standing so close, touching scales to soft flesh and dead coverings; Consort saying _"Comfort me"_ with his body, Alpha saying _"I will protect You"_ with His.

Alpha's other half is not like my other half. Consort never pretended to be a dragon like my other half did. Consort is _all through very much human_, but Alpha is his other half _anyway_.

_"Alpha,"_ I ask, _"why do You love that thing that human that monster Your other half?"_

He screams again because I have very much offended and insulted Him, but He answers me. _"THIS MOST PRECIOUS THING THAT I LOVE, MY HEART THE OTHER HALF OF ME."_

"Whoa, Toothless, what-?"

"_Hush_, son, I need to understand!"

_"But he's HUMAN!"_ I cry._ "How?!"_

_"YOURS is human, too! How do you not know?!"_

_"SHE WASN'T HUMAN BEFORE!"_

Alpha stares at me. _"She gave birth to Half Of Me. Half Of Me is human; of course she's human, too."_

_"No! No! Maybe...maybe a long long long time ago she was human, but then she __**wasn't anymore**__. She was a __**good**__ dragon, my half of me! A good dragon in a human body, human body __**only**__! But now, no no no, she doesn't talk right anymore, she doesn't sound right or walk right or smell right, she is not a dragon anymore...!"_

Alpha is so angry that He rushes to jump on me and bite my neck to subdue me. I have to let Him because He is my alpha, and it's not _Him_ I reject, it's her, it's not-Her that I reject.

He bites me, growling, until I have said _"I am Your submissive flockling"_ for a long time, and I don't move when He finally lets me go.

_"Two halves,"_ He says. _"Bodies don't __**matter**__, talking doesn't __**matter**__, walking and flying don't __**matter**__. TWO HALVES. Half Of Me my precious thing, He can barely talk but He still speaks to me and understands me and I understand Him. He can't even make good smells, but He __**still**__ marks me and claims me somehow in His human way. He's crazy and stupid but He's still somehow the very much smartest person I know, smarter than __**me**__. He can't fly but He __**flies anyway**__._

_"He is HALF OF ME! He would be Half Of Me if He was a __**fish**__. He would be Half Of Me if He was an __**EEL**__. He would be Half Of Me if He was a venomfang or a wolf or a squirrel or a sea-king! He would be Half Of Me if I wasn't Alpha, if I was the lowest most horrible flockling! He would be Half Of Me if He killed my mate and offspring! He is Half Of Me ALWAYS NO MATTER WHAT, that is what two halves ARE. I am dragon, He is human; He is my one-and-only, I am not His; He is crazy, He was Queen and now He's my consort; DOESN'T MATTER. TWO HALVES ALWAYS."_

I'm shocked. _"...You are not his one-and-only?!"_

He's scornful. _"He loves His mate and His dam His 'mother' almost as much as He loves __**me**__, so annoying, I DON'T LIKE to share my most precious thing. But this crazy human, I love Him so I must tolerate these crazy annoying things. But you __**know**__, Fourwing, yes? Your other half is a human, too, so you know. Having a not-dragon other half is __**harder**__, very much harder hurting __**frustrating**__. But it's okay, because still two halves and still enough love."_

Two halves. Always forever, no matter what. Even if She's not a dragon. Even when She hurts me. Even when we hurt _each other_.

I look at Half Of Me, who is crying Her human water again and staring at me in that way that means She wants to come to me and reassure me and submit to me and love me, but She won't because She doesn't want to hurt me.

_"Come here,"_ I say.

She rushes to me and squeezes me with Her forelegs and rubs Her vague human scent on me and bares Her throat to me and licks me. _"I'm sorry for being human, forgive me, forgive me."_

_"My half of me. MINE."_

_"Yes yes yes yes."_

"Ummm...Mom, so...is everything good now...?"

"Yes, Hiccup, please go away, I'll see you tonight..."

"Okay. Well, send a Terror if you need anything."

"I don't need anything, I have everything I need right here, right here!"

Alpha and Consort leave us. I stay with my other half, my _human_ other half, as we reassure each other and love each other and fly together. I almost lost Her. I almost lost Half Of Me because I was stupid and thought She stopped being my half just because She stopped being a dragon. I almost lost Her because I didn't know it's okay to have an other half who's not a dragon.

That sea-king Alpha-who-was was very very very very good. But so is my new alpha. This nightwing alpha is the only one who understands me and my other half, who could explain to me and save us. _"This good flock we are in, this good flock led by our good alpha and His consort Your __**child**__."_

_"Yes. Please don't be angry at me, Half Of Me. My child with my mate that I love, his flesh came from me and his blood came from me, I __**have**__ to love him. I missed him so much."_

_"Your precious thing. I'm sorry."_ But I need to be reassured again. _"If my wings failed, would You catch me?"_

_"Yes. It would be very much hard, but YES. If his wings failed and your wings failed, it is YOU I would catch, my most beloved."_

It's good. It's enough.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: And so I finally break my unintended six-week hiatus, yaaaay!

Though to be honest, the only reason I managed to get this written at all is because it was for a friend and had a deadline. ^^; I'm probably going to continue to be quiet on the fanfiction front for a while, because I've FINALLY started making some significant progress on my efforts to get my act together in real life, and in the past few weeks I've been recovering from what I now suspect might have been a three-year bout of dysthymia ._. (I only learned about two days ago that "dysthymia" is a thing that exists. If I'd known sooner, I probably could have worked my way free from it long before now! But oh well, better late than never.)

Anyway, so my lack of online productivity actually means that I'm being much more productive in real life, and I have a new plan to tackle my responsibilities and prioritize them in a way that's doable. I'll still definitely write, because I am a writer, but my fanfiction output might be slower than it was before. I'll have to see once I settle on a routine that works. I do, ftr, still want to finish _Carried Off_ and all the other fics that have been dangling incomplete for so long.

As far as this fic in particular, Anna gave me a wonderful list of ideas to work with, but for some reason I still struggled a lot, starting and discarding three other stories before I finally got the idea for this one. I've never done Cloudjumper's point of view before, and it occurred to me that I could make a little plot out of several ideas: Hiccup/Toothless and Valka/Cloudjumper are the only known human/dragon two-halves pairs, but they differ in that Valka seems to have almost tried to become a dragon in some ways, whereas Hiccup has never made any attempt to abandon his humanity. Also the idea that Valka has probably changed significantly now that she's reconciled with her husband, reunited with her son, and rejoined a human community. Poor Cloud probably has a lot to adjust to.

o.o.o.o.o

Omake: "What dragons think of Hiccup"

A DreamWorks' _How to Train Your Dragon_ fanfic by Raberba girl

This is one of the story ideas that I attempted, but it didn't work out because it doesn't have a plot. ^^; (I had been hoping that a plot would form as I was writing, as has happened sometimes in the past, but this time I just came to an abrupt halt once I reached the end of my inspiration.) If I later see a place in a longer story where it can be incorporated, I'll use it there, but until then it'll just be an omake for Anna.

This is from Valka's perspective.

o.o.o

It feels wrong to ask, like I'm doing something behind Hiccup's back that I should be ashamed of, but I can't help myself. I want to get to know my lost child better. We _are_ growing more accustomed to each other, little by little as time passes... But sometimes it's still awkward or painful, sometimes I don't know what to say, sometimes I don't know how to react, and in all honesty, I prefer to see my son through dragons' eyes.

_"Our flock consort that we love."_

_"Yes,"_ I say patiently, because this is the first thing nearly all of them respond with when I ask. _"But __**why**__ do you love him?"_ Is it too conceited of me to bask in the praise of my son as if it reflects onto me?

_"Our gentle one,"_ says Meatlug, _"soft paws on snouts and scales, soft voice to reassure us, forgiveness and love and joy. He loves our babies as if all of them are his precious things. Very much best queen-who-was."_

_"Our CRAZY one,"_ Hookfang says proudly. _"Very so much crazy consort! This crazy queen-who-was, this exciting good crazy flock, we are the only best one, the only best crazy dragon-and-human flock with our only best queen that did VERY SO MUCH CRAZY THINGS but won and won and won! Stealing foreigners to be our flockmates, loving monsters until they love him back and give themselves to him, he is so SMALL but he taunts those bad humans and makes them rage and shows us how to burn them anyway! So crazy and FUN! So good! Yes!"_ He can no longer contain his enthusiasm; he launches upward in flames to crow his exultation to the skies.

_"Our queen-who-was that we love,"_ Stormfly purrs. _"To HER that rotten sky-king, we were slaves, our bodies belonged to Her but our hearts bared teeth and screeched defiance. HE did not do that. HE gave his body to __**us**__, he gave his trust and his heart to us, he submits to us but he's so clever and crazy that he owns us instead. This good thing. Our hearts purr and nuzzle him. He is our precious thing; our whole flock, our consort/queen-who-was but our precious thing, too. He loves us and protects us; we love him and protect him."_

Barf and Belch are the least adoring but the most thoughtful. _"This person our flock consort, this thing with a human body that can't smell or talk or see, this stupid and crazy tiny wingless person who can kill rotten sky-kings and free slaves and become two halves with a nightwing... We think he is not a human. He is not a dragon. He is Chainbreaker, this new scary/wonderful thing. This flock we live in that Consort and Alpha made together, this our home, we are happy here."_

I don't need to ask Toothless. The Night Fury practically sings it in every waking moment, in his glances and steps and wing beats and strangely human smiles. He and my son are two-who-are-one. He and my son know each other as well as they know their own selves. He had my son are bound with a love that cannot be broken, that can accomplish anything they dream of.


End file.
